Recall
by Moonsetta
Summary: Set after "The Call," "Robin: Offline" and "Spoiler: Gotham's Fine Line." It starts with a race back to Gotham as Nightwing and Robin rush back to the city. Two choices and the after-math of that choice. Final installation in the "Calling" series.
1. Chapter 1

Pain. Ow!

You know that feeling of waking up with something pressed in between your rib bones?

Yeah. He had that now.

Not to mention, his eyelids were extremely heavy and hard to open. OK, focus. What was the last thing he remembered?

_Why? Why can't I kill you?_

That voice was hanging onto the edge of the back of his mind, repeating that line. The voice he recognized, but his foggy mind couldn't pull up a name or face at the moment. The second thing he felt was that his throat was extremely dried out. It felt like there was a great number of bunched up strands of dried twine shoved into his esophagus. A dry crackling, sounding out from his throat, only appeared to back his theory. His vision returned only for a breath, and allowed him only the momentary sight of a few blurry shapes above him.

Thankfully, he saw and recognized the shapes.

"Robin."

The voice that followed seemed to be almost from an apparition some rooms away. He had to strain to hear what the boy was saying.

"…I...you…we…Stup…idio…Gray…"

Then, strangely there was another voice nearby the first.

"…ve…kid…infec…wound…fever…we…night…"

Fever.

He had caught that word, but he wasn't shivering or hot.

"…rang…ercury…"

"OK Grayson, get your thoughts strait," Dick muttered in his mind.

Something touched his lips. Sadly, he only got about three drops of liquid in his throat before his mind flipped his body back over into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>In the back of the BHPD HQ, long left to decay, supplies room, a figure was forcing himself to flip through a magazine slowly in the dim light of the room.<p>

"What kind of an idiot builds a swimming pool inside of another swimming pool?"

"I'm sure I don't know kid."

"Stop calling me kid!"

Two sets of challenging eyes met before a mumble drew the two sets of irises back to the still form. Still sporting an admittedly torn up version of his Nightwing uniform, the hero was lying there, near dead to the world.

"I'm wasting my time here," the colorful child sitting in a fold out chair next to the makeshift bed muttered as the cop across from him adjusted the hanging light above the trio.

"Then leave, I'll take care of my partner."

_Her _partner?

Robin gritted his teeth and forced his eyes back to the old magazine in his hands. What pissed him off the most at the time is that he couldn't do anything! It was incredibly irritating! Drake had disappeared. After the Boy Wonder had learned that Amy had shot at Drake quite a few times to scare the older bird away he had almost felt gratitude.

_Almost._

Alright, the woman was tolerable. Given he had learned that his father had made some questionable choices of partners in the past. Thankfully, Grayson didn't appear to be falling into the same habit. Mostly, this was a woman.

_Females._

She was the one, who had, without a hitch, chewed out Nightwing the whole trip back from the outskirts of Bludhaven, even though the hero had been unconscious most of the time. A smirk fell over Damian's face; he could already see the scene. Poor Grayson, he was going to hate waking up!

Overall Damian had a distasteful respect for the woman.

She wasn't an idiot, but she was still irritating nonetheless.

* * *

><p>He should've known that the idiot wouldn't have been out for long. Should've known.<p>

Damian had left the room for a measly ten minutes to find something to eat. A short, unimportant ten minutes and when he returned, he found Amy cursing Grayson's name while pacing the room. Glancing over at the bed, Robin noticed a note on the pillow.

Well, what do you want woman? He left you a note!

Meaning, crap! Grayson was out there with no idea what was going on.

He should find the idiot before he causes some kind of havoc.

* * *

><p>Nightwing found himself leaning against a partially burned tree near the debris of the High Rail Train, continually turning over a bat-shaped communicator in his hand. This particular one had been Kate Kane's. When he had found it near an entrance tunnel into Bludhaven he realized that the whole thing had been a trick.<p>

His head was still hurting, his ribs and a few other things, but that could wait.

Wait. Someone coming! Ah, wait, he recognized the footsteps.

"What took you so long Robin?"

"You have a habit of pissing that woman off."

As the colorful clothed child came into view, the elder hero chuckled, "Everything and everyone pisses that woman off at one point or another. You know, you were supposed to stay in Gotham?"

Damian huffed, "Oh please, you would've died if I hadn't followed you."

"Point taken," Dick said with a smile, "I guess we should head back to Gotham. This was a ruse, probably to get me away from Gotham. The city should expect trouble soon."

"Wait. You need to know."

"What? That you snuck away from the others repaired the Batmobile and flew it here? I already know."

Robin blinked a few times, "How did you-? Oh, forget it! I'm not asking!"

Nightwing smirked before he noticed that the younger bird's eye suddenly took on a different look. The smirk he held fell into a frown before concern draped itself over his face.

"What is it Robin?" Nightwing asked, pushing himself off of the tree, walking over and kneeling down next to the boy.

"Drake."

"What about Tim?"

"He's a traitor."

"Robin, what are you-"

The rest of the man's sentence was cut off when the younger shoved what appeared to be a security camera into his face. There was an image of Robin in the corner, frozen. Seeing the young bird nod from the corner of his eye, Dick hit the replay button.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe this," Nightwing muttered as the two birds finally reached the previously hidden Batmobile.<p>

"Drake's a traitor! You can't deny that he attacked me."

Tried to kill you!

Nightwing had a million thoughts running through his mind, trying to distract himself by watching the child walking beside him finish the repairs on his signal tracer. It had gotten a bit damaged but Robin had claimed it was 'repairable.'

"I'm not denying it, but it just isn't like Tim. What could make him do that?"

"Why are you so sure that something made him do it?"

"Tim wouldn't do that. I know him."

Damian scoffed and made his way to the passenger side of the Batmobile as he finished snapping the tracker's face plate back into place. Imagine his surprise when Nightwing follows him and leans against the door.

"Idiot, move! We need to get back to Gotham!"

"What about the others in Gotham, are they-"

Irritated, Robin shoved the signal tracker, screen first in the elder's face, "They're all at the hospital still. Now if your simple one-way brain can get the idea, we need to get back."

"OK," Nightwing said with a shrug, turning around and opening the passenger door in front of him before throwing himself down into the seat.

"Are you intoxicated Grayson? You-"

"You drive."

Hold your breath. Blink. Blink.

"Wh-what?"

Nightwing smirked. The child had stuttered! He had actually gotten the little prince to stutter!

The elder spoke again, but slowly, "Yyoouuu, drrriivvveee. Got it?"

Robin reached out and slammed the door closed faster than the automatic could in the elder's face. Grayson wanted him to drive?

A smirk fell over the younger's face and he kept that smirk as he pulled himself up and over the vehicle to land on the opposite side. It was not a flip of joy; he was simply getting to the necessary location as quickly and efficiently as possible.

It wasn't a flip of joy.

* * *

><p>OK. Here's the beginning of "Recall."<p>

Only ten chapters for this story.

And I have to thank everyone for making "The Call" my most sought after story. It's still on 35 alert lists and the one-shot that started this all "Popularity" has just reached 50 favorites. I'm grateful to every one of you.

Reviews make me update faster.

~Moonsetta


	2. Chapter 2

Recall chapter 2

The speedy ride back to Gotham was still going to take a good half an hour and everyone who knew Dick Grayson the slightest bit, knew that he didn't like awkward silences.

Damian Wayne, on the other hand, was completely comfortable with any kind of silence, awkward or otherwise. There was one type of silence he couldn't fathom or grasp though.

And that was any kind of silence while in the presence of his eldest brother, especially when the fool was completely and clearly conscious!

"Grayson, would you talk already? Your silence could wake the dead."

The elder hero chuckled under his breath as the younger rolled his eyes in annoyance. Why the idiot found near everything he said was worthy of a laugh or smile, he didn't know.

"Sorry Kid."

"OK I'm going to rip out the throat of the next person who calls me that!"

THAT only caused Dick to laugh.

"Grayson, is it possible for you to EVER take a death threat seriously?"

"Um, nope, I never have and probably never will."

The awkward silence returned and the younger began allowing his eyes to roam among the controls of the Batmobile in front of him. He didn't know what else to do while Grayson was this quiet.

"That cop."

"Hmm?" Dick mumbled as his head turned slowly to stare at Robin.

"She's…irritating but not inadequate for her job."

Nightwing raised an eyebrow under his mask; did Damian just indirectly compliment someone?

"Uh, yeah. She's good."

"You obviously had more sense than my father when it came to choosing partners."

OK. Had the demon child just given him a compliment or did he still have a concussion?

"You mean Red Hood and Red Robin?"

"Among others he worked with in the past. How he managed to work with such ignorant underlings is beyond me."

Dick closed his eyes; he MUST still have a concussion. Good thing he'd let Damian drive and besides, needless to say, the Boy Wonder had gotten much better since the last time he had gotten behind the aerial controls of the Batmobile. Guess those driving lessons out in the Sahara had helped a lot. Though, he hoped that no one ever found or questioned the giant crater there-

Well, that was trouble for a different day.

Awkward silence returned to the two of them again

"Any theories about what the hell is going on?" Damian asked after another uncomfortable minute.

"Aren't you supposed to be the detective here?"

Robin growled under his breath, "Nothing has any connection."

"Why don't you start with what we already know?"

"I thought you weren't a detective?" the younger said with a raised eyebrow.

Nightwing waved off the comment and began speaking, "As far as I can understand, a week ago-"

"Was Scarecrow's city-wide bombardment," Robin finished for him.

Where was this going?

"Where upon the whole team began focusing on calming down the city. You and Batman were with Catwoman and Catgirl and trying to capture the Red Hood. He shot you and ran off-"

Robin pressed his lips together tightly to keep from commenting. He'd made a mistake and let that maniac get away…

"It only proves that there's more than one bad guy. No one could single handedly keep you down and fight off your father at the same time. You're both too good for that."

A compliment, very common from the acrobat but still, Damian turned his head into the shadows to slightly smile out of sight.

"So answer this Nightwing," Robin said, turning his head back now that his face had returned to a neutral display, "Jean-Paul Valley, the first Azrael, it's obvious he would know my father, you and Drake but what about the rest of us?"

"Robin, it's not that Azrael has knowledge of all of us. It's the fact that he has the knowledge and therefore the ability to get a hold of the information about all of us."

"The Bat-Computer?" Robin asked and received a nod.

"But how could he have gotten past all of the defenses in the Cave?"

"You forget, once upon a time Azrael was Batman."

"No I haven't, my Father reviewed the case with me just days before Scarecrow's attack."

"One week and you didn't recognize that eye plate you found at the Manor?"

"…"

Nightwing raised an eyebrow in the silence.

"Shut up Grayson."

Dick laughed before slumping back in his seat, "If it's Jean-Paul, than he would've known a lot of entrances to the Batcave. It shouldn't be surprising; and there are direct communication connections to the Bat Bunker and safe houses on the computer as well. As well as all the information your Father stored on it about our team."

"Alright, so it's this Azrael guy and he's working with someone."

"A few dozen someones actually," Nightwing responded, glancing right to look out of the window.

"Do you have any theories for that? I highly doubt that Scarecrow could be behind this."

"I have one theory that would explain part of this coordinated attack, but I'll need the ID from Doctor Leslie to be sure if Jean-Paul is indeed involved. After that I'll need to go to S.T.A.R. labs in Metropolis. If Superman isn't busy, maybe we could get his help as well."

"Why Metropolis?"

"They have a nuclear micro analyzer, which no other branch has because they don't have Superman to install the components without dying from the expelling radiation of the decapolonium-210 core."

"What kind of idiot thought powering the thing with decapolonium-210 was a good idea? It's more deadly than that trihydrogen dodecacyanide Kryptonite mixture that Lex Luthor thought was a good idea three years ago."

"Yeah, and both Japan and France are still recovering from it," Nightwing mentioned, "I know it's deadly, but it's the only way I can know for sure if my theory is correct."

"What theory? While we're stuck together again I'm your partner so you better tell me what the hell is going on!"

"It's difficult to explain Damian. If you glanced through Arkham's files I bet you'd find that after their releases, Poison Ivy and Penguin haven't made a single public scene or robbery."

"They're behind this?" Robin raised a questioning eyebrow.

The idiot couldn't seriously be suggesting that Scarecrow, Ivy and Penguin were behind the entire attack? How in the world would they have gotten into contact with the original Azrael, who was supposed to be dead, anyways?

"Grayson, you're making absolutely no sense. Which isn't surprising in-"

"Before you insult my detective skills listen. Who do we know that can bring back the dead?"

Damian's eyes widened behind his mask, his foot hit the break and his breathing shortened into gasps, "Grandfather."

"It's possible and if the DNA ID from Leslie confirms that it was Jean-Paul we fought, then using the nuclear micro analyzer in Metropolis will either confirm if Ivy is involved or not. I suspect that there are micro-plant spores in the Batarang; specifically, the mind altering kind that could synthesize successfully with Scarecrow's fear toxin, causing the unusual state you were in."

When Robin glanced over, he noticed that Nightwing had pulled out a clear plastic evidence bag and inside it, were half a dozen mercury coated Batarangs.

Silence.

"You really should keep driving, Damian."

The boy nodded silently and reached for the control to the hover engine, and stopped, but only for long enough to mutter.

"He would have known the Manor too. That's why they found Bruce Wayne and not Batman there."

The elder hero swallowed the air in his mouth that suddenly felt like salt water.

"Don't worry, we will find out what's happening, who's behind it, we'll find the team and Bruce will wake up."

Looking at the silent boy, Nightwing could almost see tears peeking out from the bottom of the mask. The reality had hit him. They knew nothing about what had happened to Bruce or Alfred. It was a strong possibility that they would never wake up. Heck, they could already be dead.

Nightwing made a mental note to see if he could contact Barry Allen and Wally West when he headed for Metropolis, if anyone could help with a toxin; it was the chemistry Einstein Duo.

But for right now…

His right hand went to the compartment in his left glove and pressed a button on the side. By the time he got Robin back to the others, his motorcycle would be at the high rail train station he had rode in on. After a quick talk with Leslie to confirm or deny his theory about that DNA ID from his broken grapple he'd be able to head to Metropolis and hopefully contact some friends.

Now assuming that the others got enough sleep it would only be advantageous that the Cats and Robin head out into the city to track down the Scarecrow. If they could get the answers out of him they wouldn't need to go through so much trouble. Given the mad scientist was actually involved or if the toxin had simply been stolen.

Well, he wouldn't have to wait much longer. Gotham city was now in sight.

Was it truly Jean-Paul or an imposter? And if he had been brought back from the dead, was he working for Ra's and what was the guy's plan or motive for doing all this?

Well, no one said that living in the ranks of the Bat-Family was easy to endure or understand.

That last thought crossed Dick's mind when Damian spoke up again.

"What was Deathstroke doing there?" he growled.

The kid sounded like he wanted to tear the guy to pieces…

"That's-"

Nightwing didn't get to finish his sentence because the communicator in his ear let out a shrill beep.

"Nightwing here."

"Thank goodness."

"Dr. Leslie? What's going on?"

"It's the Penguin, he's attacking. The Cats and Spoiler went out to stop him."

Dick grimaced, "Stay with Bruce and Alfred. Robin, step on it. We may have another lead."

Forgetting and bypassing the security of the perimeter of Gotham City, the Batmobile flew towards the hospital that had become like a second home for all of them. They could already see the ice forming on the building across from it.

"Let's go!" Nightwing said.

Robin nodded and the vehicle made a quick descent to the iced rooftop.

* * *

><p>Whew, finally. Sorry this took so long, my studies have kept me busy for a while.<p>

By the way, I'm having a little indifference about the plot line. There's two directions I want to take. I'm simply saying this because I will answer any questions I can, but I need to decide on which direction I want the plot to take, before I begin making some things clear.

OK, now that that's taken care of, I just wanted to take this opportunity to again thank everyone for reading, favoriting and reviewing this series. I originally started in the Nightwing forum with the idea that I would just write one or two one-shots and then leave, but look what that's turned into. Also, I do have some few one-shots in the Batman forum which I could use some more feedback on, given that one was actually a request on DA. If you don't mind or aren't too busy.

In the meantime, I will start typing the next chapter tonight and attempt to finish it and post it tomorrow since this update took so long.

~Moonsetta


	3. Chapter 3

Nightwing's communicator rang as soon as he and Robin's feet hit the hard iced rooftop.

"What is it?" he spoke quickly and then halted his run, causing Robin to stop as well, when he heard the voice of an old friend.

"Nightwing, what is going on in Gotham? We haven't heard from Batman in a week and the city is in lock down."

The blue and black clad hero shook his head and continued his run, "Superman listen, this isn't the best time-"

But wasn't he planning to get ahold of this guy anyways?

The old Dynamic Duo simultaneously spotted the purple clad Spoiler running towards a near unconscious Catgirl, surrounded by Penguin's henchmen. The duo let fly numerous Batarangs, the few materials from the Cave, Bunker and Batmobile that hadn't been destroyed or taken.

"Tt. Pathetic."

Spoiler caught Catgirl as she stumbled and then looked up at the taller building, smiling in relief, ""Robin, Nightwing."

"She's gone. Catwoman's gone," Kitrina muttered before passing out completely.

They had lost another.

"What is going on there?" Superman demanded through Nightwing's communicator, "I've spent the entire week just trying to hack your team's communications."

An idea hit the acrobat and he turned to the youngest hero, "Robin, your signal tracer! Catwoman might still have the communicator I gave her!"

The Boy Wonder whipped it out. Tuning it to Catwoman's signal, the signature cat shaped blip appeared on the screen, showing that the feline ex-thief was outside of the city and moving away from it, very fast. She had to be in some kind of vehicle; a flying vehicle now that Dick noticed that there was a 2,000 foot elevation statistic next to said small bleep.

Someone was flying her away.

"Superman, where are you?"

"Heading towards Gotham."

"You flying?"

"Yes, but I don't see-"

"Someone grabbed Catwoman and is flying her out of the city; we need you to intercept whoever it is."

"What are the cor-"

"Sending coordinates through the JLA line," Nightwing said, taking the signal tracer from Robin and transferring them wirelessly to the encoder on his JLA communicator, which he had pulled from the compartment in his left glove.

"On it, but while you're on the line-where's Batman?"

He almost said it, but something influenced him and Dick cut off the word with a choke before muttering an excuse, "I'll tell you later. I have to go."

Well, wasn't that a Bruce-like thing to do?

"Nightwing?"

The hero glanced down to see that Robin's eyes were wide and curious after he hung up from the exchange.

"Superman may give us a hand, if the one taking Catwoman outside of the city is the mastermind behind all of this."

"What do we do?"

Nightwing looked across to the next rooftop where Spoiler was trying to wake up Catgirl. He didn't miss the shaking of The Spoiler's hands.

"We get them back to the hospital and I need the ID from Leslie. From there we'll go see what Superman found."

Robin nodded and the two headed over to the unconscious and semi-conscious girls, thoughts of how this could all end exploding in the back of their heads.

* * *

><p><em>Beep.<em>

"Nightwing here."

"It's Superman."

"What did you find?" Dick asked as he turned away from the door that opened to the room where Kitrina and Stephanie were unconscious again and Damian was standing by the window, looking out over the city silently, his back to the four unconscious figures in the room.

Dick walked down to the hallway, heading to the lab where Leslie said she had finished the ID of the blood that had been on his grappling hook.

"I found something-and you better get out here quick."

Dick stopped walking, "What?"

"How long have all of these people in your 'Bat-family' been missing?"

"What, you-"

"They're all here, unconscious and sealed away in some kind of-"

Well, that was certainly enough for him, "Don't touch anything and be on your guard, I'll get the details myself when I get out there!"

He ran the rest of the way to the lab, startling Leslie from working on one of the machines set around the lab.

"Dick what is-"

"Suit up. We had Superman intercept whoever took Catwoman outside of the city and whatever or whoever it was-all of the others are there. We might need you."

Leslie jumped to her feet and grabbed her jacket, pausing only long enough to mutter the expected result of the blood, "Dick, the ID. It's what you thought, Jean-Paul Valley."

It meant little right now.

* * *

><p>Leaving Bruce, Alfred, Stephanie and Kitrina in the hospital unconscious, comatose and the like, was dangerous, but there was no telling what was going on outside of the city with the few details they had gotten from the Man of Steel.<p>

"Are you sure about this?" Leslie asked as she shifted in the passenger seat of the Batmobile.

On the driver's side, Robin scoffed, "You think I'm incapable of driving?"

"You're only ten!"

The radio on the Batmobile came to life suddenly, "Let it go Leslie, the kid knows what he's doing."

Robin smirked a bit at that, and then scowled suddenly when he realized that he had allowed someone else to call him Kid.

"You'll hit the target before us Nightwing, any visual yet?" Robin asked, making mental death threats since he knew that Grayson would never take them seriously anyways.

"There's a lot of smoke."

"Not helpful Gra-Nightwing."

"Yes it is. The smoke is thick and low to the ground."

"So?" Leslie asked.

"A large ship made of certain thin varieties of metal," Robin said in response with a nod.

"Good job Robin."

Even if Leslie had been blind, she was sure she still would've seen the pride that peaked out of the boy's expression.

"Yeah, whatever. Robin out," he said before cutting off the line.

"You know Damian, I'm curious," Leslie said slowly.

"About what?"

The boy's neutral expression had returned.

"You worked with Dick when he was Batman."

"Yeah, so?"

"It was a lot different than working with Bruce, wasn't it?"

Silence.

The boy blinked twice before reaching for the signal tracer he had set up between the seats and activating it to trace Nightwing's signal.

It took a few more seconds but then-

"Yes, much different."

And no more was said on the matter; at least, not between the two of them.

* * *

><p>Nightwing was mentally patting himself on the back for thinking to signal his motorcycle to come to Gotham. Given its smaller size and the fact that the Batmobile was damaged, he would reach the site first. At about two minutes before arriving he called Superman.<p>

"Superman, I'm on my way."

"What's your ETA?"

"Two minutes. Then I'll tell you what's going on."

"Dick, at least tell me where Bruce is."

"I-" he hesitated, despite Bruce's ways; he had many friends and people devoted to him.

And if there was one guy you didn't want to piss off with bad news of Bruce Wayne, it was Clark Kent. Dick could still remember his own little rocky spat with the Man of Steel when he had taken up the Batman guise. Clark had been furious and Dick hadn't blamed him in the slightest. Of course, the Man of Steel hadn't been thinking logically. None of them had been really-Not even Dick himself. He had had to force himself to be logical at the time to take up the mantle. He still remembered his chat with Wonder Woman a few days later.

They had talked about Clark and now, Dick wondered-had Bruce ever actually told the Kryptonian that he was the closest thing to a brother that he had ever had?

Before he answered, Dick looked to the sky. The sun was at its highest point so it meant that it had been-two days?

Yeah, he'd stick with that.

"Both Bruce and Alfred are at Gotham general they've been comatose for near 48 hours."

"WHAT?"

"Listen, have you found anyone other than-"

"No, the ship must have been on autopilot."

Finally the mass expanse of the assumed flying vehicle flashed into sight in front of his eyes and Dick stopped his motorcycle. This thing was massive. The skeleton structure of the ship seemed to be all that was remaining. It stretched over the field, which itself was probably a good 300 by 500 meters.

Dick spotted the red cape in the distance and sped over on his motorcycle, but when he came upon the scene, he nearly flipped off of his motorcycle at the sight. As soon as the Man of Steel turned and met his gaze, Nightwing swallowed in shock, because on a still standing back wall were numerous capsules full of a glowing green liquid and immersed in the liquid, was every Gotham citizen that had vanished, including the remainder of the 'Bat-Clan'.

* * *

><p>AN: Sorry about this, but this story can now take one of two directions plotline-wise which I'm going to leave that decision to one of my reviewers, if anyone reviews this chapter at all.

Truthfully, I will be quite relieved to finish up this series. I never expected "Popularity" to go so far.

~Moonsetta


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Wow, what an excellent turn out of responses I had.

* * *

><p>It hadn't taken long for Robin and Dr. Leslie to reach the crash site and undergo the same awe Nightwing had experienced. It took only a short twenty minutes to free everyone.<p>

Black Bat, Batwoman, the Red Hood, Batgirl, Huntress, Man-Bat and a successfully located Catwoman were all spread out on the ground just short of the remains of the strange ship, along with the other random citizens of Gotham that had disappeared as well. Dr. Leslie was checking on the entire group, who were all unconscious but thankfully, still breathing easily, and Robin was sending out a call back to the Commissioner about what they had found.

In the meantime, Nightwing was discussing what had happened with Superman. Apparently the Man of Steel had just come upon the craft and was about to either call out to a potential pilot or try to enter the ship when the mass machine started plummeting towards the ground. Superman had stopped it from crashing but was then pushed backwards the moment he set it on the ground. It sounded like something inside had exploded.

"Yet these weren't touched by fire or debris," Nightwing said intuitively while motioning to the now empty containers that had held the victims.

The green liquid inside had drained into a large tub Superman had located beneath the little of the floor that was left.

"This ship," the Kryptonian began.

"Is alien," the younger hero finished with a sharp nod.

"Who's behind this and-"

"Bruce is still comatose. Don't worry, I'll get you inside the city when we're done here," Dick said quietly, already anticipating the Man of Steel's next inquiry.

"As for who's behind this- I have a few theories."

"Which include?" Superman asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Jean-Paul Valley, Azrael, Poison Ivy, the Penguin and possibly the Scarecrow."

"Gordon's on his way. Alone-as you requested."

The two heroes turned ad spotted the Boy Wonder walking towards them, "His ETA is ten minutes."

Nightwing gave him a small smile and nodded respectively, "Thank you Robin."

"And here's a substance analyzer," Robin said, holding out what looked like a game controller, "I believe it's best we infer what that green substance is before any of them awaken. If it's what caused Huntress to act as she did- we should be prepared."

Dick slapped his forehead, why hadn't he thought of that?

Wait a minute-

"Where did you get that?" the acrobat asked.

Damian scowled, apparently expecting a different response to the presentation, "I simply took a few unessential parts from the Batmobile's elevation sensor, space boost igniter and one of the ejection seats to build it."

"You built that in ten minutes?" Clark asked, hovering slightly above the ground with a dropped jaw and wide eyes.

If the kid wasn't Bruce's he would've-well he wasn't actually sure what he would've done.

The accusation in Dick's voice vanished and he reached for the device with a large, proud smile before using the other to ruffle Damian's hair. In response, Damian let go of the device but still gritted his teeth, trying to resist the urge to punch the guy's smug face in.

"Damian, you're amazing."

The youngest hero almost brought up the 'no real names in the field' rule but kept his lips pressed together as he absorbed the sentence and how the elder had actually spoken directly to 'Damian' and not 'Robin.'

The Boy Wonder pulled up his hood to hide any possible visual cues that alluded to the pride he felt and scoffed in response. It didn't help that when Dick walked past him, that he placed a proud hand on the boy's shoulder. While Nightwing headed for the center of the room where the draining tub was beneath the sheets of metal that made up the floor, the youngest hero was mentally throwing questions at the back of the acrobat's head.

What was with Grayson? Was there actually any way to annoy him or make him angry short of killing someone he cared about?

Damian didn't think so.

* * *

><p>Superman and Robin were searching the rest of the wreckage for a possible pilot, or anything that could identify the alien race it originated from while Nightwing was meeting with a just arrived Commissioner Gordon. The man was happy to find that his daughter was alive and was currently by her side. Among the 'bats' that had been captured, the only ones in costume or meta-form were Catwoman, Huntress and Man-bat.<p>

As Gordon was asking Dr. Leslie about her diagnosis of every victim, Dick headed over to what appeared to be a control computer console. It was alien tech though, making heads or tails of it was impossible without some foundation of knowledge.

In his head though, he was screaming, "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?"

He forced himself to take a deep breath and look over the controls. From a glance they looked like that they would glow if successfully activated, but he didn't dare touch any of it. Doing that might be a good way to start an alien invasion. In the meantime, while running his eyes over the machinery, his thoughts were tied into hundreds of knots trying to find some kind of connection here and there.

Both Huntress and Red Robin.

Helena and Tim.

Quite an unusual pair given that nearly no one could even get along with Huntress for too long. If Huntress had returned here after fighting Spoiler and the Cats inside Gotham- why hadn't Tim when he had been chased off in Bludhaven? What if there were more ships like this-and who was running them when their team hadn't found anything inside of this one? The land around them was wide open so anyone who could have piloted the ship and then made it self-destruct couldn't have run without getting spotted by Superman. There weren't many hiding places in what was left of the ship for them to stow themselves away. Plus, the Man of Steel was searching the place with his x-ray vision and this tub wasn't made of lead.

If the substance analyzer Robin built wasn't already decoding that green liquid he would've used it to test some the debris metal. From seeing it earlier, he would've guessed it to be some form of lead or titanium perhaps hardened with Antimony. Given Superman could see through the material though that kicked out his lead theory. Titanium seemed better for a getaway ship; lead would have been used for a battle fortress ship.

Either strong defenses or heavy artillery.

Of course, there were no guns on board and nothing that the handful of them could define as a weapon. Plus, those were earth elements. He had no idea when it came to this alien tech. Sighing and breathing deeply of the stale smoked air, Nightwing made his way back to Dr. Leslie and the commissioner.

* * *

><p>"Nightwing, you should see this," Leslie said as the hero approached the doctor and policeman.<p>

"What is it?"

The three ended up standing around Man-Bat and Dick thought back to the past when it was so easy to tell hero from villain. Sigh, oh well. Focus.

"That liquid, we found it in their bloodstreams-even Catwoman's."

"So it has affected them," Nightwing muttered before turning his eyes to the ground, trying to think, catch the loose end of a thread.

He needed a few hours and couple hundred feet of poster paper to get this all together!

He ran an aggravated hand through his hair.

"But Nightwing?"

"Hmm?"

Gordon spoke up to finish the sentence, "Man-Bat and Catwoman, unlike the others, their blood isn't fusing with it."

Dr. Leslie nodded, "The Metas, their immune systems are rejecting it."

"Is the Meta-human DNA repelling it?" Dick asked, suddenly wondering about what differences you would actually see between a normal strand of DNA and a Meta one.

Given it was probably different for near everyone and… What was he thinking? He was no genetic specialist.

"Possibly," Dr. Leslie said, reaching out to count the breaths escaping the Meta-Bat's mouth, "I'll need to get back to my lab to do some further tests though."

"Right, in the meantime- we need to get them back inside of the city. Keep everyone sedated for now, we don't know what each is capable of and even if the Meta human's bodies are fighting this drug-or whatever it is- we shouldn't take the chance that they haven't been affected in some way either," Nightwing said, turning back to the debris.

"I'll get them back into the city," James Gordon said with a voice that seemed to be blown away by a wind that wasn't there.

"Good," the hero said, "I'm going to need you back near the North entrance to Gotham right afterwards Commissioner. I'll need Superman's help with something inside of the city and I'll need you to get the rest of us in, after you get the others here to the hospital."

He heard more than saw the man nod before he walked off to find the Man of Steel and Boy Wonder, only hearing from a distance that Jim had already called in one of the buses that had been gathering civilians as makeshift ambulances. It was on its way.

* * *

><p>Spotting the Man of Steel standing near the draining tub with the substance analyzer made the acrobat think about trying to find Robin first, but shook the thought off. He needed to know what the analyzer had found out, obviously it was interesting or Superman wouldn't be near glaring at it.<p>

"What it's made of?" Nightwing asked as he approached the Kryptonian.

Superman turned and held it out, his face still hardened, "I think you'll recognize this."

He did.

The yellow stream going across the screen proved only one thing.

Scarecrow's fear toxin.

Wait! Then this could be connected to the Mercury-coated Batarangs!

Although everything was still troubling him, after Dick nodded and said, "Fear Toxin," to Superman, he looked back at what else the screen was picking up. Just what he had expected…

-A miniscule substance that couldn't be identified by this basic of a machine.

He would need to go to Metropolis after all. Oh well.

Hearing a large vehicle pull up on the distance, Nightwing glanced over a pile of debris to see that the ambulance-bus had arrived to take the others back inside the city.

"Should we leave?" Superman asked.

Man of Steel he was, but Dick could see the uneven shift of Clark's left foot. He was worried.

Of course, EVERYONE was worried.

"Fly around and survey the area, make sure no one's snuck off and dropped down into a ditch to hide out nearby."

"But-"

"Just give them some time to get everyone back inside the city," Nightwing said, reaching out and placing a hand on Clark's shoulder, "I promise, just twenty minutes at max, then I'll get you inside the city."

"What about you and Robin?"

Crap! He still had to find the boy and see if he had found anything to help with this mystery.

"Robin can go back with you. I have an errand to run back in Bludhaven," it was a lie of course.

"Alright."

Before either of them could go any general direction though-

"AHHH!"

In no time at all, the two heroes were on the opposite side of the wrecked ship. They entered what looked like a storage room that had only one still standing wall.

"This is where the scream came from," Superman murmured.

Neither had to say anymore, just gasp and shield their eyes as a light inside the room flashed on, momentarily blinding them. When the light cleared though, they lost their breath.

Against the still standing wall was Robin, his body soaked in his own blood, with two mercury-coated Batarangs dug into his chest.

* * *

><p>OK, stopping there. Whew, what a run!<p>

Review please.

~Moonsetta


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry, I HATE writing these things as much as you guys hate having to read them. This chapter is short.

* * *

><p>Superman was floating outside of the hospital wall, using his x-ray vision to look inside the room he was by. Bruce Wayne had been comatose for two days now. It wasn't looking good. Surprisingly, the commissioner had let him by when the policeman had arrived at the entrance where he had found some of the Gotham troops holding Superman at gun point but all also conflicted with the sight of the bleeding Boy Wonder in his arms.<p>

Clark was worried as well. Ever since he had flown Robin back to Gotham City, he hadn't heard anything from Nightwing. The acrobat had mentioned something about Metropolis earlier so the Man of Steel hoped that Dick was simply unable to call or pick up because he was busy and hopefully not because he was hurt. Inside the room, Superman could see that Damian was laying on a bed next to his father, shifting uncomfortably in his sleep. Alfred was just like Bruce, silent and still. What in the world was going on?

"Hey! Man of Steel!"

Superman looked up and with the help of his enhanced vision, spotted a lone figure on the rooftop. It didn't take long for him to get on top of the building as well. The one who had called him turned out to be The Spoiler, her eggplant colored cloak floating in the breeze in the opposite direction as his red cape. How the wind in Gotham city did that, he would never know.

"You know Man of Steel? If I get knocked out one more time today, I'm gonna kill someone!"

* * *

><p>Later on, Superman would decree that despite being able to fly fast enough to penetrate the very barrier of time-he was beaten in this race.<p>

Also during that 'later on,' Nightwing would decree that the Man of Steel had simply been shocked and frozen still by emotion long enough for him to win the race.

This race? And it's goal?

Well, Dick didn't need an answer as he shot off of the ground at the looming dark figure perching astutely upon the top of the wall that Robin had been pinned too.

All those stories about the Bat's protectiveness over his various Robins? They're true.

The tale of a pissed off big brother?

Well-no more time for questions!

Expelling an underworld born growl worthy of the Batman guise itself, the acrobat crashed into the previously mentioned looming figure and sent them both sprawling beyond the wall and out into the landscape of half grained sand and half untreated soil. Since Nightwing had him in full view now, it proved his theory all too well.

Azrael, Jean-Paul Valley, was staring back at him in the guise of the dead man's old Bat-Suit.

Dick pulled one of his ecrisma sticks in front of his face to catch a blade as Azrael's form blurred and suddenly appeared just inches in front of him.

"Nightwing!"

Superman. Damian.

"Get Robin to Dr. Leslie! Hurry!"

The acrobat was thankful that he was able to say that before a second blade swept downwards towards the hamstrings in his legs. Oh, no he didn't! A black flip saved the hero a sudden blood bath-but it was far from over because half a dozen Batarangs were flying towards him. Thankfully, he was trained for that and launched his body to the side just in time to miss them. In the background, he discreetly heard Superman helping Damian.

-Quiet soothing whispers that he could only pick syllables out of and in a tone the assassin child would probably rip off someone's head for.

Crap! Focus!

Bad idea to lose his concentration at this moment!

"Jean-Paul," Nightwing said slowly.

The figure shifted onto his right foot.

Wait, he was favoring his right leg over the left. Was he injured?

"Why are you doing this?"

Forget the whole rising from the dead issue, they could cover that later.

Jean-Paul was still, even his exposed eyes were. Where an eye plate in his Bat-shaped helmet would have been was nothing but darkness over gray clouded eyes. Well this explained that man that had gone crazy, run into the BHPD HQ and started waving that machete around. The disturbed visitor had talked of a 'Bat' demon. Of course, the last time Dick had seen this bat suit, it had been locked away in the Batcave.

Still, the resurrected original Azrael might have been able to plan the attack, but not be able to execute it on his own.

Dick didn't get a chance to think or move anymore before the ground broke beneath him and vines whipped out to wrap around his feet and hands, the green foliage yanking the ecrisma sticks from his hands as he tried to pull away and finally wrapping a thick braid around his mouth to silence him.

"Nice try birdie."

Nightwing shifted his eyes to the left and back as far as he could. Green and Red.

"Knew it," Dick thought silently as a sweet scent filled his nose, "Poison Ivy."

* * *

><p>AN: OK, next chapter we will finally wrap this case up and get a lot of questions answered, but the story is far from over. Bruce and Alfred are still comatose and what about Damian. The main question is-will I allow the little Robin to live?

I will keep asking for reviews. In fact, I'll have nothing to do during my classes tomorrow. Don't see why I couldn't take my laptop with me and get a head start on the next chapter.

~Moonsetta


	6. Chapter 6

It was a fair three hours later when the hospital door reopened and Dr. Leslie rejoined the injured family. Her worried eyes swept over all those unconscious, but lingered on the youngest one's form. She couldn't bring herself to speak the truth.

It was very unlikely that the boy would survive until nightfall. The sun outside in the sky of Gotham city was still its usual cloudy, dull self-barely spilling any light to blanket the city. No one had heard back from Nightwing since Superman had left him to single handedly face down Azrael. The Man of Steel was currently flying around Gotham, looking for trouble or anyone not inside a safe place. It was now late noon, and just as before, the city was at an ill standstill of hope. The underworld was already ringing with the next round of rumors that Batman had died yet again. Superman and Spoiler had both heard it when they were asked by the commissioner to seek out a family on the outskirts of the city that had hidden in their basement when Scarecrow had had the bombs of fear toxin dropped all over the area just two days ago.

Finding an old radio, the grandfather of the group had managed to get it working and contacted a firefighter, who had been at a demolished building downtown, searching the destruction for any survivors and to take an account on how many bodies the funeral home would have to arrange to bury. The bombs had done enough from the impact and explosion to release the gas to also take out a few buildings' support beams. The old radio had been in his truck, a refurbishing job he had planned but was unnecessary when he found that the device had worked anyways.

On the way to rescue this family, the Man of Steel and the Eggplant Heroine stopped many thefts on their way and repelled an ambush that some wondering souls thought they could win. Many of them had been attacking in fear though. The toxin might have cleared from the air, but it was still affecting the ones that had previously inhaled it.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Leslie refocused on the room. She hadn't had the heart to tell Stephanie, who was sitting beside the boy currently, her cloak gone in favor of her civilian apparel and staring at the air with a contemplation air about her. Well, she had just gone on an adventure with Superman. Normally something like that would make a child smile.

Nightwing had always been quite lithe and courteous when entering a building-but this?

The blue and black clothed hero threw the door open, not wincing when it slammed against the back wall and the doorknob left a fair sized hole in it. He needed only about 1/24th of a second to take in the scene of everyone in the room. Bruce, Alfred and Damian lay in their still unconscious states, Stephanie and Superman, now currently in his alternate Clark Kent identity, were leaning against the far wall and Leslie was by Damian's side.

"Dick-what happened?" Doctor Leslie gasped at the sight of the cuts and bruises covering the man's body.

"It's a long story but here."

He walked toward the doctor and handed over three vials of a blue colored liquid, "Give these to them," he said, motioning to the three unconscious figures in the room.

Then, he turned to the Man of Steel and handed over a dozen more, "Put those in the IVs the others are hooked up to and then fly one to the hospital in Bludhaven and tell them it's for their patient Travis Henderson."

"But-wait, what's going on?" Clark asked as he tried to grasp the vials without breaking them.

Why were these vials made of glass? Glass was easy to break!

"And what about Azrael?"

The younger hero leveled the famed Bat-Glare at him and gritted his teeth before lowering his voice to angry edge, "It's a long story-I'll tell you later but if you don't get one vial to that man in Bludhaven, he will be dead within the hour."

"I'll take the vials to the others then," Stephanie said, grabbing the majority of them from Clark's hands before rushing out of the room, nearly running into the worried doctor as she injected the liquid hesitantly into the patients in the room.

She didn't even know what this was-but if there was time involved….Was this a-?

"Poison," Nightwing voiced her thoughts, turning towards the woman as Clark Kent rushed out of the room, leaving through the room's window as Superman would look too suspicious for the time being.

"What? But how?"

The hero released a breath he had seemed to be holding for a while and held up a hand to stop any further questions so he could ask his own, "You got a phone?"

Blinking a few times and then nodding, she pulled out an outdated cell phone that might have been popular some five years ago, "Who do you need to call?" she asked as Dick quickly but gently took it from her hand.

He didn't answer and just dialed numbers quicker than Leslie's eyes could see. They each waited in tense silence as it rang once.

It picked up.

"Amy I need you to get the hospital and check on the crazy that-"

"…"

"His name's Travis Henderson. It's a poison, released by a special breed of plant spores which thrive by feeding off of ice and blood."

"…"

"Yeah, Poison Ivy, right on the mark. You'll find Superman there with the antidote; tell the staff to do what they can to keep the man's heart going while the antidote bonds with his blood."

"…"

"Superman? He's kind of hard to miss and he'll mention my name."

"…"

"The Nightwing one," Dick said with a huff.

"…"

"Look, I'll explain everything later Amy I have to go."

Leslie got back her cell phone and raised an eyebrow at the hero, "Ice and blood? There's no such plant that-"

"It's alien."

The doctor gasped, "The space ship?"

Dick reached up and pulled his mask from his face before sinking down into the nearest chair, "I'd explain but I'd rather everyone get back from their jobs first before I dive too deep into this story."

"Then at least let me take the time to bandage those wounds."

Dick almost protested before Leslie used the old-pissed-off-female "look." Curses! The only thing that could beat the Bat-glare! Dick wasn't sure anyone outside himself and Alfred could endure just the "Bat-glare" itself but this?

He muttered a hesitant consent.

* * *

><p>It was the old Bat-Bunker that the team found themselves back in-all except for Jason, who had tazered a nurse that was checking up on him and promptly crashed out the top story window for an escape and Batgirl, who had returned to her father at the police station immediately after awakening. Unfortunately, the third day had Bruce and Alfred still in their comatose states as well.<p>

"Well," Dick thought as he finally managed to get one of the computers in his old base working again, "Jason was never really discrete about much."

"I told you it was the Valice Adapter months ago," a voice spoke directly behind him, making the costumed hero turn around in the chair he was sitting in.

"Damian?"

The Boy Wonder stepped out of the shadows and was nearly blinded by the smile that the older hero was wearing before gasping as Dick pulled him into a tight hug.

"Grayson, do you want your entrails ripped out?" Robin growled as he struggled to escape.

Dick chuckled and loosened the hold he had on the younger hero just enough so he could pull the boy up to sit next to him on the chair. Damian scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest, but didn't take any initiative to move from the spot. It was really the only place to actually sit in the entire bunker. Everything else was torn apart.

"OK, Blue Bird, why are we all here?"

Nightwing looked over to see the group moving over to the computer he had gotten to function again and he realized it was Selina who had been speaking.

"And would someone mind explaining what in the world is going on?" the Spoiler asked as she moved forward enough to reach out and ruffle Damian's hair and nearly lose her fingers because of it.

"You two behave," Dick said to the current Boy Wonder and the previous Batgirl.

Oh man, he felt like Batman again.

Damian glared at Stephanie, but she only smiled sweetly behind her mask at him, which further irritated him.

Shaking his head and turning his body slightly to hit keys on the computer that had a cracked screen, Nightwing pulled up a photo as he began his monologue.

"I had Robin reach out to a few old contacts of his and thanks to one of them being in the right place at the right time-he was able to recover this."

Dick was able to marvel at the smirk Damian had on his face from the corner of his eye.

Typing a few more keys, a map appeared and Spoiler held up a hand, "That's Egypt, right?"

"Exactly," Dick said and typed a few more keys in long succession.

A red rectangle lit up a corner of the map and zoomed in. What appeared made most of the Bat-team step back in shock.

"Extraterrestrial," Cassandra said slowly.

"This is the ship that Superman intercepted outside of Gotham city. The same ship where we found all of you," Nightwing reported, turning back to stare at the group for a second before facing the computer again.

"So, we were abducted by aliens?" Batwoman said, raising an eyebrow under her cowl.

Dick laughed and ran a hand through his hair, "No, that would have made this a lot simpler."

"So, lay it all down for us," Huntress said, her arms crossed and leaning against one of the old, busted, never-gonna-work-again-even-with-a-truckload-of-elbow-grease computers.

"I was able to recover a report from the database of the League of Assassins," Robin stated as Nightwing typed in even more lines of code!

"Ra's al Ghul," Damian forced himself not to follow the statement with the verbal reminder that he was his grandfather, "I found that he and a group from the League recovered the ship."

"Why would he do that?" Spoiler asked.

"Probably for the advanced technology," Dr. Langstrom mentioned, kind of hanging in the background like a kid at the playground who felt like he didn't belong.

He probably wasn't welcome by most of them anyway. A history of terrorizing them as Man-Bat you know? It didn't exactly spell out 'friend.'

"Something my-he would be interested in," Damian included, catching himself and breathing a silent gasp of relief when no one paid any particular attention to the slip up.

"What about the Azrael guy? Where would R'as get the body to bring him back to life anyways?" Kitrina asked.

"Now that," Dick said, slumping backwards a bit in the large chair, "I honestly don't know. I'd have to ask Ra's al Ghul himself."

"He also somehow has control of Azrael?" Kate Kane asked.

"But how?" Black Bat asked, making her normal silent presence known.

"Let me guess, mind control spores?" Selina asked, "Poison Ivy?"

Dick nodded, "They're of extraterrestrial origin as well, with a matching chemical compound to the alien ship. Not to mention-that the Penguin, Scarecrow and Poison Ivy were all released three days before Scarecrows bombardment on the city."

"Mind control spores," Huntress muttered before punching a hole in the screen of the computer she was leaning against, "I hate it! They used me as a damn puppet!"

Dick sighed-glad the place was out of commission, because the equipment that needed replacing in the Batcave would be expensive enough.

"I was gone two weeks before the attack on a mission for the Justice League in the Strata II galaxy some 285 million light years away. I found that any communication that could have reached me didn't, because of a mass ion storm passing through the Medtra galaxy between the Strata II galaxy and our own."

"So that's where you were," Kate said, fingering her cape with a thoughtful look on her face.

"So I have it mentally mapped out like this. Three days ago, criminals and civilians alike were running amok because of Scarecrow's bombardment of Fear gas over the city. Red Hood took it as an opportunity and on him I won't say anymore except that after getting most of the city under control for a few days, all of you began disappearing along with a few random Gotham citizens."

"What would R'as want with them though?" Stephanie asked.

"He was trying to do us a favor," Nightwing said solemnly, leaning sideways to rest his head on a hand propped up by the arm chair he was closest to.

"What favor? There was a favor in there?" Huntress growled.

"If he had just taken all of us, it might have endangered our identities as Gotham's crime fighters. R'as doesn't want his enemies humiliated like that."

Robin nodded, "Not his style. It serves no purpose."

"The day I returned from that galactic mission was the day that Catwoman, Catgirl, Batman and Robin were tracking down the Red Hood. You were wrong Selina, he wasn't the first taken-just the first that was obvious. Thankfully, Damian regained enough sense to escape Gotham city's defenses and come to Bludhaven to find me."

"Lucky brat," Stephanie breathed.

"What was that Fatgirl?" Damian sneered, ready to punch the blonde's face in.

A hand on his shoulder made the Boy Wonder calm down the slightest bit, but only the slightest, tiniest bit.

"Take it easy Robin," Nightwing said.

"My head hurts from all of this," Catgirl complained, placing her clawed-gloved hands on the sides of her head.

"Hey, if detective work was easy, everyone would be doing it," the Spoiler said with a shrug and a hidden wink at the acrobat he would never know about.

"Anyways," Nightwing continued, "I met up with Commissioner Gordon outside of the city, who was able to get me past the security. After making my way around the Manor's grounds to find that all of the entrances to the Cave were sealed I decided to head into the city where I ran into Catwoman and Catgirl. They told me what was going on and we had our first contact with Azrael, who we have confirmed the identity of with a DNA match, after which we, rushed to pick you up Spoiler."

The purple hero grinned beneath her mask and fiddled with the eggplant shaded cloak while she reported, "I put up the best fight I could but I never even saw the guy, the night was dark thanks to the Fear Gas. No lights were on anywhere and the streetlights had been busted and shot out by the insane criminals of the city."

"We picked her up and rushed off to meet the Commissioner before we took her to the hospital," Dick finished.

"We headed back to the Manor to investigate the sealed entrances," Robin started, "I was the one who found the red eye plate Azrael used on that crudely created costume of his."

Dick smiled at him before continuing himself, "We found that the entrances that weren't sealed by the Batcave's defenses were plugged up with debris from the destruction of the Manor and they were too tightly packed to be random. They were manually and deliberately packed to prevent entry."

Each member of their little group went on to explain their own parts of the tale for the rest of the evening. When everyone's stories had been presented they began to break off to head home, Huntress and Doctor Langstrom promising to stop by Arkham to check in on The Penguin. In the meantime, they'd keep an eye out for Scarecrow and Poison Ivy. Nightwing made sure they each had a few oxygen masks and vials of the new antidote before leaving.

When everyone had gone, it left two birds in the room. As Dick walked back towards the working computer, he stopped when he found that Damian had a camera screen up that was nothing but static. He recognized the coordinates in the corner.

"Dami-"

"You said the hospital called you earlier, before I woke up."

"Yeah?" Dick said uneasily.

Damian turned the chair around, his blue eyes no longer hidden by his new mask. He looked worried, rare, but believable.

Guessing at what he was about to ask, Dick answered as he reached up to take off his own mask, "They don't know Damian. It might, it might be too late for them."

"NO! This will not be my father's end!"

"Damian, those containers the others were in also acted as a stasis field, slowing blood flow. It's possibly the only reason that the rest of them are all alive. Bruce and Alfred though, I believe they will make it, they're that way, but it will be a struggle for them. I was able to use the old antidote for when you stumbled into Bludhaven- but this new one is mixed with alien life. It made it impossible to detect with our society's instruments. Scarecrow's attack on the city was just that-a distraction. It affected most of the citizens while Azrael and whoever is with him had specific targets for this new version."

Damian simply turned back to the computer, put his arms on top of the keyboard and buried his face in them. Concerned, Dick walked over and reached out to run a hand over the back of Damian's neck. The boy didn't protest.

"How long?" the younger asked, his arms masking his voice.

"They said they'd keep them on the life machines as long as we want. We both have to agree when to take them off, it's their policy. All family members have to agree."

"Even the children?" Damian asked, lifting his head and staring up at his eldest brother.

Dick smiled calmingly, "Yes, everyone who's aware."

"Good, because I'd never forgive you if you-"

"-I wouldn't dream of it Little D."

-Though a little voice inside his head made the acrobat question why he had that much faith in Bruce…

He shook it off almost instantly. What was he thinking? Everything would be fine and Damian had to believe that too.

Dick let his arm rest over the boy's shoulders, "Come on, it's time we called it a night."

"I don't want to go back to the hospital."

Hmm. Was the boy really that worried?

Dick shook off the wide-eyed look he had on his face as a result of that statement and then let an uneasy smile, "OK, uh why?"

"…"

"I'd just like a re-"

"Shut up…Grayson."

It was a normal jab that the young assassin would take against him but the delay with his name made the elder worry even more.

"Alright, I won't ask. I'm sure you have your reasons. Now come on, a lot of businesses are opening back up. Just a few, but I heard there's a hotel among them."

"Dick, my father's going to die. Isn't he?"

Dick only blinked. Damian had called him by his first name.

And it only made things worse.

* * *

><p>Almost done. Just four little chapters left.<p>

Who will live? Who will die? Who will I randomly kill?

~Moonsetta


	7. Chapter 7

All he had had to do was flash the Wayne-Gold-Standard card and the hotel manager was more than happy to give them the best of the best that the still standing place had to offer. It was in one of the few areas of the city that hadn't suffered any structural damage. The manager, once and forever always a greedy man, would be just like all of the other business owners in Gotham for its recovery period. It would take a large amount of money to restart businesses and repair all that the fear gas canisters had destroyed on impact and anyone who had money would be preyed upon.

Dick still had a few problems though. Alfred and Bruce were still not waking up and the worst of all was that Tim was still missing from all those people that had been recovered. Wayne-tech scientists were studying the substances and materials found on the alien ship in every lab that was available across the city. The majority of the "Bats" were back on the streets-everyone now playing the buddy system other than Jason.

In the darkness of the late night, Dick glanced off worryingly at the ceiling of a hotel room and then over at the other full bed where Damian was sleeping without a sound. Too many problems…his head hurt big time. He should find some aspirin tomorrow.

Tomorrow…

The hospital staff had said that after a minimum of three days and a maximum of seven, it was rare that anyone woke up.

Fed up and tired, the acrobat rolled over onto his side and closed his eyes. He had only slept for a few minutes when something woke him up. One could debate what kind of a sound it was-approaching, encroaching or some type of sound-sound. Still, some type of sound woke him from the edge of his trance and he turned onto his back to find that Damian was standing next to his bed, his blue eyes (Bruce's eyes) narrowed at him in a single-minded form of concentration that almost bordered on anger.

"Something wrong Damian?"

Knowing him, the sheets, the blankets or pillows weren't soft enough or something along those lines.

"What's going to happen when my father dies?"

Crap. He was saying 'when' not 'if' any longer. Bad. Very bad.

Dick sat up abruptly and ran a hand over his forehead, "Damian, I'm sure Bruce will be fine. He's gotten out of tougher spots."

"That substance's half-life is 24 hours."

An eyebrow went up in confusion.

In response, the younger crossed his arms and his eyes changed from concentration to annoyance, "You're hopeless Grayson. It's been three days, 72 hours. That substance's running on 12.5% of its original strength."

"So?"

He got a punch in the ribs for that one.

"You idiot!"

He had half of a mind to yell at the child to quiet down for fear of waking up the few others staying in the hotel, you know, if he wasn't still trying to catch his breath where Damian had punched and probably bruised at least two of his ribs.

-If they hadn't already been bruised that is; that was a distinct possibility too.

"My father is much stronger than me," Damian said strait forwardly as a cold hard fact.

"Little D it's 2:00am, if there's something you're-"

It had taken some time to hit him. Despite his upbringing, Dick had always known that Damian was still just a child, no matter how often the kid denied it. The young boy was still worried, but this time more and more facts were building themselves up against Bruce's survival/miraculous recovery, whichever one someone wanted to call it.

The hit was that Damian had managed to fight this drug at 100% of its strength but Bruce Wayne, Batman, couldn't fight it at 12.5%. Like he thought-facts. They could get you at any moment!

That didn't make sense though. Batman was easily the strongest physically and mentally of them all and Alfred hadn't ever been sick at all in Dick's collective memory, so what was holding those two down?

The clock set up on the table between the two beds clicked over to 2:02am. Ugh, it was too early for this!

"Dick?"

Holy crap! His first name again! He was on a roll with this kid!

The acrobat couldn't help but smile at that fact, but when he looked back he hadn't expected Damian to sit on the edge of his bed. The lost blue eyes were back from earlier and he reached out to lay a hand on the boy's shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting manner. He definitely didn't expect what happened next either. Damian let Dick rest his hand on his small shoulder for a minute before he swiped it off and moved to sit up next to him. Before the acrobat could speak again, the boy was leaning into his side, his hand bunching up the material of his t-shirt to hold onto him.

"Just like any other scared ten year-old boy," Dick thought, raising a hand to rest it on top of Damian's head.

Silence filled another minute until the elder found his tongue again, "Listen Damian, I know it looks bad-but your father will pull through. We all will. The rest of our team is scouring the city for any signs of the Scarecrow, everyone is heading back to their homes and just-everything's going to be alright. I promise."

"Don't make a promise you can't keep."

OK, problem: Damian couldn't believe-couldn't hope.

He needed a fact that the boy could hold onto. Bruce and Alfred hadn't given him any to work with though. That was the problem with most things in life though. Truth required belief-fact could not be disputed. About only 1% of everyone's combined knowledge was actual fact.

He needed a fact that could not be disputed in any way, shape or form.

"Damian, I believe that both Bruce and Alfred will wake up any day now."

"And when they-" Damian began but was cut off.

"And if they don't, if the worst of the worst comes to life-then I'm not going anywhere."

"…"

When Dick glanced back down, he found that Damian was sound asleep. Smiling, he turned and scooped the boy into his arms before sliding out from underneath the blue blanket on his bed and walking over to put the child back into the other bed. He found it quite amusing how he was tucking the boy in much like he had Tim when the boy had been younger.

At the thought of the missing bird, a stab rippled through his heart and he felt it bleed a little. He swallowed deeply and then climbed back into his own bed before falling asleep-making a silent promise to get a hold of Wally tomorrow. Wayne enterprises had called on the police forensic scientist of Central City before, so the Scarlet Speedster could enter Gotham City with a pliable reason pass. If anyone could figure out more about the alien goo-it would be him and Superman had had to return to Metropolis for an emergency but promised to return the next day as Clark Kent. The police would be suspicious of a nosy reporter, but Dick would be there to vouch for him and lie by decreeing that he had invited him since he was a close friend of his father's.

Before his mind finally let go of reality for the final time that morning the acrobatic hero had one last thought: Bruce, you better wake up soon.

He had too much to do tomorrow.

* * *

><p>The first stream of good news hit the streets, televisions, radios and gossip lines of Gotham that coming afternoon. The Scarecrow had been found and captured by surprisingly-The Red Hood. Why he hadn't splattered the guy's corpse all over-Dick had no idea. Jason was…well-Jason. The second was a molecular model discovered and built by the visiting forensic scientist from Central City.<p>

Dick Grayson found himself running into a third occurrence of good fortune, when he was taken away from watching Gotham scientists debating over the model Wally had built in one of Wayne enterprises research laboratories, by a familiar voice behind him suddenly.

"Grayson, I'm going to kill you and this guy too if he doesn't get his gun out of my face!"

The acrobat turned and his eyes widened to see Amy, his police partner from the BHPD, standing behind him and itching to punch the guard next to her who had his gun to the side of her head. She could've taken him down easily but she was practicing restraint.

"Stand down," Dick ordered the guard in a calm voice.

"But sir-"

"Stand down and return to your post immediately!"

"I'm sorry sir, but while your father's comatose and your brother is still missing-we all have strict instructions to-"

He didn't get to finish his noble monologue before Amy had jammed her elbow into his gut, kicked the gun away and swept his feet out from under him, "Trust me rookie-he's in safe hands."

The guy balked and ran away.

"How do you live like this?" Amy asked, picking up the gun from the floor and unloading it before sticking it and the bullets into her pockets.

"I don't. That's why I left. So, what's up?" Dick asked, glancing back at the debating scientists to see them watching the two of them now.

Thankfully, the ledge the two officers were standing on was too high up for the Gotham researchers to hear anything.

"You told me to keep an eye out for-"

"You found him?" Dick darted forward in half panic and half joy.

"Wears red and black, bird on his chest?"

"Red Robin," Dick said with a nod.

He had called Amy back earlier this morning to keep an eye out for his missing little brother since the last account anyone had had of him was when he had attacked Damian in Bludhaven.

"He's out of it though, been that way for 24 hours."

"Listen; get him to Commissioner Gordon at the police department. The place is stocked with the antidote. Call me when he's conscious or if anything else happens."

With that last comment he slipped a small ear piece communicator to his partner and she nodded, "See you then Grayson…oh, and good luck with all of this. If you need any help, you know where to find me. Bludhaven's quiet for once, probably because all of the chaos here is attracting back all the scum."

* * *

><p>Due to the Wayne name he bore but barely ever used-it meant that a lot of crap fell back onto Dick Grayson while Bruce Wayne was gone or otherwise occupied. If just Bruce was gone, the normal paperwork and headache went to Tim Drake. Given the acrobat had been held up at a meeting Lucius Fox just begged him to appear at, he had missed when his little brother had woken up. The call from Amy reported that Tim had headed directly to the hospital for news on Bruce and Alfred.<p>

Thankfully his presence and news of recovery had many of the reporters that had been bothering the acrobat turn their interest towards the one foster child of their local Billionaire that commonly wore the Wayne name.

It was near sundown that day when Dick Grayson finally reached the hospital. Imagine his surprise when he walks into the back hallway to escape the reporters in the lobby, that one young reporter in particular still asking him the 'boxers or briefs' question, and finds the two little brothers he'd come to both love and be annoyed by trying to rip each other to pieces while Dr. Leslie stood to the side eating a hotdog.

"You know guys? The only thing that could this scene more random is an elephant on a mini trampoline," the acrobat said with a smile as the two ebony haired boys broke apart and looked over at him.

"Dick!"

Tim smiled and ran up to share a quick hug with his older brother.

"We are not finished here Drake!" Damian shouted after him.

Tim turned back to his younger brother and began yelling, "Would you get over it, you little-hmm!"

Dick had slapped a hand over Tim's mouth, "Enough! The both of you! Man, you guys make me feel old!"

The acrobat turned to the doctor still enjoying the hot dog most randomly, "You were just going to let them tear each other to pieces?"

Leslie glanced up and shrugged, "I tried earlier but I was too hungry to bother."

The eldest Wayne brother decided that he would rather NOT ask about where the hotdog came from. The cafeteria at the hospital had been closed for renovations, so unless they had a new line of fancy grilling vending machines…

Wait-he wasn't going to ask.

"How are they Leslie?" Dick asked quietly, removing his hand from Tim's mouth.

Both of the younger boys remained quiet while the doctor searched her mind for how to answer, "Alfred's in the safe zone. He's merely in a deep sleep right now."

Tim and Dick breathed a sigh of relief but then braced themselves for the next stream of news.

"Bruce hasn't changed."

Short and sharp gasps of breath made the older brothers look down at the youngest member of their family. Damian had turned away from Dr. Leslie and was breathing erratically. He gritted his teeth, began to stomp away, only stopping momentairily to punch Tim in the stomach.

"What the hell was that for!"

Damian didn't get the chance to answer, not that he would have anyways, before an arm slid across his shoulders and he was effectively trapped in another comforting hug from Dick.

While keeping his eyes on the youngest one clinging to his arm the acrobat spoke to Tim, "We're staying in a hotel nearby. You can tell us what you remember."

For once in his life, Tim felt a small stab of pain in his chest for Damian and he ignored the bruise on his stomach in favor of feeling that he should reach out to the younger child. A feeling he would later be completely confused and befuddled by.

* * *

><p>Just 3 more to go and I'll be done! *Does cartwheels*<p>

~Moonsetta


	8. Chapter 8

Time for the final countdown.

Three!

* * *

><p>"Yeah, it happened after my pen had run out of ink," Tim assured with the stream of the evening's sunset slowly fading outside the large window that stared at them from the nearest wall, "I had just started working on that dinosaur of a laptop when he was just-there."<p>

Tim Drake's blue eyes left their determined interest in the floor and floated up to meet the blue eyes of his older brother, who was in a position the younger man found…just odd.

Damian, the little freaking demon that he was, was sleeping and leaning against the eldest brother's side as if he was just a giant pillow. Said little demon shifted and opened his eyes slightly, attempting and failing to glare at Tim.

"Drake-what did you poison me with?"

"Calm down Dami," Dick said, raising a hand to rest it atop Damian's head, "I gave you your medicine earlier, remember? It's supposed to make you drowsy."

"Hate you. Hate you all."

"How did you get him to take it?" Tim asked with a look of awe in his eyes.

"Slipped it in his tea," Dick said with a proud smile.

The tech specialist smirked as the youngest boy tried to get to his feet only to fall back against his eldest brother. Though Tim was befuddled when the young boy appeared to give it up and bury himself into Dick's side. He was still awake-but just barely.

"So, beyond that last night in New York City, I don't remember anything until I woke up here."

"Are sure you can't remember anything?" Dick asked with a sudden frown.

He needed Tim to tell him something, give him a lead.

The younger detective closed his eyes and mentally started stripping his mind of memories from the time but what he found was miniscule.

"I can only remember sensations, some pain, feeling concrete, wood, and metal. Smelling smoke and blood."

The eldest sighed, "So, nothing new at all."

Someone had decided to throw him a bone though, because the com-link in his ear rung out and Dick's frown turned back into a smile at the news.

"Yes, hold her there. I'm on my way."

"What is it?" Tim asked, ready to jump to his feet and exchange his civilian clothes for the Red Robin guise in the small closest the room had.

Hidden in a secret back storage area of course.

"Man-Bat and Batwoman found Poison Ivy on the north bank of the Gotham River."

Tim jumped to his feet, "Well let's go!"

"No," Dick said sternly, his face drawing itself down into a serious expression, "I'm going, you're staying here."

The younger hero's eyes widened in shock, "What? Why?"

The acrobat turned to scoop up thee still half unconscious and still muttering curses child before tossing the bundle into Tim's arms, "You're staying here to watch him."

"WHAT!"

"I have to go ensure that Ivy is locked away, plus I'll need to ensure the Penguin and Scarecrow spill everything they know."

"But you can't leave me with this…thing!"

"Put me down Drake!" Damian managed to kind-of yell, even though he couldn't gather enough energy to move his limbs though, making mental oaths to stab Tim if he could manage to get his hands on something sharp in the next few minutes.

Why was the idiot still holding him?

"You're a big brother now Tim, deal with it. Now make sure he doesn't eat anything after eight and ensure that he's in bed by nine. I should be back around 10:30 to 11:00 at the latest."

"What? Dick, I am not a nanny-!"

His promising rant was cut off when the eldest hero slammed the door behind him as he left the room in a rush.

Tim stood there, gaping in shock until the child in his arms had managed to raise a hand and dig his nails into the man's shoulder until he felt that the little nails were about to draw blood. The elder promptly dropped the boy and Damian gasped as his back impacted the floor.

"Fine, you can lay there until Dick gets back. I've got more important things to do than be your baby sitter!"

"Drake," Damian whispered, his breaths short and sharp, as Tim turned away and glanced out the window at the slight tapping that signaled the beginning of a light rainfall.

Whether or not Damian was fit to be moving, he had better things to do with his time. If he left now he could beat the storm to the hospital to check on Bruce and Alfred. Dick would be pissed off when they all met back here but there was no way he was sticking around to care for this homicidal, demon-chided, pathetic excuse for a brother. How many people could say that they came home after spending a weekend with a friend only to find that they suddenly had a ten year-old little brother? And an assassin brother at that?

He only stopped his walk to the door when he realized that the t-shirt he was wearing wouldn't hold up if the rain got too strong. Most of his personal clothing had been in his apartment, now burned down, and the businesses opening in Gotham had only provided a couple of thin t-shirts and pairs of jeans. He glanced towards the small closet that was in the room and approached it intent on finding a jacket. Maybe Dick had one he could borrow.

"Drake…"

He continued to ignore Damian as he slid aside the door and let his eyes sweep over the miniscule amount of hanging cloth. Finally, his eyes landed on a blue jacket that Tim suspected was the same shade of blue that made up the symbol and finger stripes on Dick's Nightwing costume. It would do. He smiled as he slipped it on.

A thump made him turn around sharply and he saw that Damian had managed to sit up and brace his back against one of the chairs the three of them had been occupying earlier. Unfortunately, the wood that made up the bottom of lining of the golden cloth furniture had been at the wrong place and the child was holding a hand to his head. He must have hit it on the way.

Tim glanced at the door and then back at Damian. Dick was going to pissed off either way so why should he bother to-

Dick's voice resounded inside his head, "You're a big brother now Tim, deal with it!"

Fine! He supposed that he could at least put the drugged up brat to bed. Besides he was half asleep already, not like he could do much. So with a defeated sigh, Tim crossed the room again and bent down to pick up the assassin child with a scowl. Afterwards he could only gape when the boy reached up to wrap his arms around his neck and buried his face in his shoulder.

He blinked down at the boy four times before he found his voice, "Uh…Damian?"

Deep breathes escaped the younger's mouths, signaling that the medicine earlier had already dragged him down into the realm of REM cycles. Dick had said the medication was to keep up his red blood cell count but left the kid with little energy. Unfortunately, Tim hadn't listened far beyond that.

OK. When had he dropped into the Twilight Zone?

* * *

><p>Nightwing assumed that everything at face value could be a lot worse.<p>

"So what did Ra's offer you?"

And he begged every one of the guards outside not to ask why he was talking to a miniature Venus fly trap that was sitting on top of an interrogation bench that he was leaning against.

"The alien seeds and microscopic spores. Why else would I take up an offer?" the plant answered and the acrobat heard a few of the guards outside muttering about insane vigilantes and aliens.

He just rolled his eyes behind his mask and continued talking with Ivy's current pet plant. Handy that she could cast her voice through it with her powers and the fact that it was alien. The bad news was that when Dr. Langstrom and Kate had found the icon of Mother Nature, she hadn't just been at the north end of the Gotham River, she had been washed up there.

"What happened before we found you?"

"That bastard Bat-demon came out of nowhere and shoved a gas bomb down my throat before throwing me off the plane and into the river!"

The gas, he would go ahead and assume that it was why she couldn't talk on her own back in her cell.

"Look…Nightwing. The last place Ra's was hiding out was an underground base in India. He mentioned something about Egypt, but I doubt the maniac's left anything for you to find in either place. I wish I could tell you where he was heading, but he didn't tell anyone except that cheap Dark Knight knock off."

"Thank you for your cooperation…Pamela."

"Drop the frivolities…that scummy chemical instilled river water killed my plants. I want Ra's broken and bleeding!"

Beneath his mask, the hero lifted his eye brows as high as he could, "Yes Mam."

"Good boy."

OK, well he supposed that this was one of those occasional cases of: the enemy of my enemy is my friend; though Gotham had taught him better than that.

He passed the information he had compiled off to Commissioner Gordon just outside the cell and explained the unusual situation Poison Ivy was in. He agreed: weird. Nightwing stopped by to see the two other just recaptured Arkham inmates. He had left Penguin to Huntress and Scarecrow to Dr. Langstrom.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" the Commissioner asked as the two looked in on the two once-upon a time allies.

"Dr. Langstrom has been a trusted member of Gotham city for years now Commissioner Gordon and Man-Bat has been a trusted ally for even longer," Nightwing said, watching as Scarecrow just shook his head with that creepy grin while sitting in front of the white lab-coat wearing doctor.

Both he and James Gordon were standing just outside of Scarecrow's new cell and the elder policeman had his hand gripped around the gun in his pocket tightly.

"Look, I'm happy that these guys are turning around but I can't deny that it unnerves me. Yesterday some punk came by and stole my wallet and the gold bracelet I had just bought for my cousin. Next thing I know he's hanging upside down from a light pole and guess who's handing me back my wallet, the gold and gemstone bracelet I had just gotten for my cousin's upcoming wedding and a bag of gems that's been missing from the Southside Bank for only two hours?"

"Why guess. I'm sure you're about to tell me," Nightwing said with a shrug.

"Catwoman! The jewel thief!"

"She has changed quite a bit in the past few months," the acrobatic hero admitted.

Thankfully, he was one of the few who knew that stealing jewels, living on the edge and flirting with danger had all been dropped by Selina after Bruce's supposed 'death' by Darksied and she had mellowed even more after taking in Kitrina Falcone. Well, Dick had to admit that being Catgirl at this point and working with Catwoman had to be better for Kitrina than working as a rebel against her uncle as KittyHawk.

"It's ten, I have to get going."

* * *

><p>He didn't go straight back to the hotel he was calling home for the moment. He stopped by the hospital, throwing on some civilian clothes to check on Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth as Dick Grayson.<p>

He got the relieving surprise he had been hoping for. Alfred had actually woken up for a whole ten minutes just about an hour ago. He sat with the elder members of the Bat-Clan for a minute but then asked why the hospital hadn't tried to call him. He had given them the information about the hotel they were staying in.

When he asked a familiar looking nurse about it, he received news that he dreaded hearing. News that sent him jumping out of the nearest window when the coast was clear instead of waiting to run out of the nearest door.

There had been no answer at the hotel room. Tim and Damian weren't there.

Damn! Panic! Panic!

Once on the rooftop he near ripped his com-link apart in trying to call Tim and Damian both. Neither answered, not even when he tried the emergency communication line for the Titans' communicators.

Why did he suddenly feel like it had been the biggest mistake of his life to leave the two of them there alone?

* * *

><p>He would have broken the window getting into the room in his state if it hadn't already been open. Nightwing's flight through the large window had him land just in front of the chairs the three brothers had been occupying earlier and then he promptly tripped at the sight.<p>

Ow! Face plant not good.

The sting of the expensive itchy carpet went away quite quickly though when he sat up, brushing off the embarrassment and staring at the two brother sitting on the nearest chair. Tim had his head tucked into his chest, sound asleep and Damian was lying across his lap, also sound asleep. The acrobat scrambled to take off his mask to make sure that the structure of cloth, plastic and metal wasn't playing tricks on him. When it was just his own eyes staring at his two younger brothers though, he mentally confirmed the picture to be real.

They were blissfully both out of it.

Oh my…he needed a camera! Fast!

He managed to get two minutes into giggling snapshots before the screen on the camera began yelling that it was losing memory. Dick hid the camera under the pillow on his bed and quietly slipped to the bathroom to change out of his Nightwing suit, a grin on his face somewhere between pure joy and maniacal. Nevertheless, when he slept that night, it was with a hand curled around the camera still hidden under his pillow and a sly plan forming in his head.

It was all turning out to be a good recovery time.

If only he had taken more notice of that nurse…

* * *

><p>Back at Gotham general, Leslie left the room and nodded to one of the new nurses that had been put on after hours duty.<p>

If Leslie Thompkins had found some reason to turn around she would have noticed the nurse slip into Bruce's and Alfred's room.

Perhaps she would have recognized the woman as well as she stepped up to the unconscious Bruce Wayne and ran a hand over his forehead.

"Do not worry Beloved. We are leaving."

The nurse turned towards dark shadows by the window and Talia al Ghul glared into the darkness. They had better hurry.

* * *

><p>Only two more to go and I'll be done! Thank goodness!<p>

UPDATE: I'm writing a new story. It's just a one-shot right now, I might expand on it later but you Tim Drake fans might like to check it out in the future. It'll be called: Dead Weight.

~Moonsetta


	9. Chapter 9

Dick woke up to two things the next morning. One was the feeling of finally being able to get a good night's sleep and the second was stress he knew that he would have to take care of quite immediately with the most careful approach that he could manage.

CRASH!

"If you so much as touch me again Drake! I will-"

Thump!

"Ow!"

"Shut up you little Demon! You were the one-"

"QUIET! Both of you!" Dick yelled as he raised himself up onto his elbows from the bed to stare across the room with his eyes still sleep clouded.

He saw Damian standing against the far wall, one hand holding a knife and the other nursing a large bump on his head and Tim just a few feet away, holding one of the floor lamps that had been standing by the group of golden cloth covered chairs. Dick's eyes were tired, but he didn't miss the fact that the bottom of the lamp had been bent, disfigured, dented. Then his eyes snapped back to the younger boy to glance at the bump on his head.

Dick gritted his teeth and glared at his tech-savvy younger brother, "Tim, what did you do?"

Tim glanced at the lamp in his hands and then threw it onto the fallen over chairs so it wouldn't break before protesting, "He tried to stab me!"

"Stop. Yelling." The eldest brother said with a growl as he threw the blankets off of him and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

"But-"

"Tim, you are 17. Damian is 10, learn to be more responsible."

Tim could only stutter nonsense as Dick motioned for Damian to put away his knife and come to him. The youngest did as he was told and let Dick examine his head, all the while the little assassin was mouthing death threats to Tim and was thankful that his father had seen that every one of his partners could read lips. Drake was fuming and just itching to pick up that lamp again to throw it at Damian.

Sighing, Dick removed his hands from Damian's head and stood up, "Nothing serious. Let me get a quick shower and then we'll go get some ice for that and some breakfast."

"What the hell was that about?" Tim growled as the bathroom door closed shut.

"Cease your blabbering Drake. It's clear that Grayson favors me over you."

"He does not!" Tim yelled and then slapped his hand over his mouth when he heard grumbling from inside the bathroom and threats under a loud breath to sew his mouth shut.

The little demon was smirking, proudly wearing the victory with pride encompassing his face.

Little, quiet, spats and remarks were tossed back and forth between the two for the next few immediate minutes before the opening of the bathroom door shut them up again. Dick walked out, his hair still quite damp but he himself much more awake than he had been before.

"Alright Tim pick up the chairs and fix that lamp, then you can join us downstairs for breakfast in the café. Come on Damian."

The youngest smirked and shuffled to the eldest's side while Tim just gawked, "Why do I have to fix everything?"

"Because Damian has a head injury, I can't leave you two together for too long apparently, I have to eat quickly because I have to go see Dr. Langstrom in under an hour, see Selina afterwards and then I have to meet with Commissioner Gordon at noon."

Tim mentally eye-twitched at the to-do list as the door closed behind the two brothers and Tim turned reluctantly to right the knocked over furniture and work at repairing the bent metal base of the floor lamp he had lashed out with when the little demon had stabbed his nails into his stomach when he had just woken up.

He let his mind wander back to last night. Why had Damian clung to him anyways? Damian did not like him. That was a rare instance of fact. So what was with the kid….even in a drugged state he wouldn't-would he?

Tired of thinking about it he just righted the furniture, ignored the lamp's bashed base and leaned it against the nearby wall. Trying to keep his thoughts away from the little demon he wandered over to the nearest of the two beds and sat down before slipping off the jacket he was still wearing. Sure this day would probably be like the day before, a cool morning and evening but a mildly warm afternoon, but truthfully he hadn't slept well last night. Not to mention in the drugged state he had been in, under whatever the heck this drug was, his brain was still muddled. Once it completely cleared he could look back into his files he had collected on the League of Assassins. He was confident that his detective skills would be more helpful in this case than Damian just pounding some thug's face in.

Tim felt his strait indifferent line of a mouth fall into a frown. Before he knew it, he was lost back in the particularly painful memories that directed his life. Looking up at the door he still seethed at the old fact.

Dick had chosen Damian to be his Robin when he had taken up the mantle of Batman.

Yeah, he was still pissed about it.

He still couldn't find one viable reason why he hadn't been the obvious better choice over the little demon. Plus, he and Dick had worked as Batman and Robin before-back when Bane had broken Bruce's back and Jean-Paul Valley had redesigned Batman into a killer.

Tim growled under his breath as he mind seemed to fog over in confusion, threw the jacket over his shoulder and headed for the door.

In the back of his mind, he considered curling up in one of the beds and taking a nap.

-No. He was needed, well; Red Robin was needed out in Gotham.

Tim Drake though?

The teen took a deep breath and closed the hotel door behind him. He figured if he kept getting angry about Damian he would just get tired of it and eventually stop. At least, that's what he had convinced himself of.

* * *

><p>It was 6:00am and a late morning for the two birds who were sipping coffee in the Grained Vase's café. Dick was staring at the table with a lost look while eating a blueberry bagel covered in cream cheese. Damian did not like the silence at all. Not one bit.<p>

"Grayson?"

Silence.

"GRAYSON!"

_Chirp. Chirp._

Damian made mental threats to the crickets outside.

"Dick!"

The man's head snapped up to stare at him, his eyes sending out the question for grabbing his attention.

"Would you speak already? As I have already stated previously, your silence could wake the dead."

Dick just breathed out a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a huff.

"Grayson, if you insist on disregarding-"

"Yeah, I got it Dami."

The younger huffed and then took a long drink of his coffee before his eyes turned to the hidden, calculating eyes of his hero identity, "Why do you need to meet with Langstrom?"

Dick looked at the nearest clock, took a large bite of his bagel and swallowed quickly before answering, "He's searching for the reason why these alien drugs aren't affecting the meta-humans."

"Catwoman?" Damian asked with a raised eyebrow of interest, which Dick smiled slightly at.

"Since Huntress was busy with the Penguin at Arkham, I left Catwoman to lead last night's city patrol. I need to know if they found anything."

"…"

The elder brother sighed and smiled again, a little truer this time, "And the Commissioner asked me to meet him, so I don't know what he needs to see me for."

The younger bird nodded sharply before taking another long drink of his morning caffeine, "Then OUR day should be an eventful one."

Dick set down his breakfast with a determined look, "Oh no Little D. YOU, are going back to the hospital to stay with Bruce and Alfred."

"What!" the younger slammed his coffee cup onto the table, grinning mentally when he felt it crack under the impact, but growling under his breath in response.

"Dami," Dick said slowly and quietly, trying to calm the younger down to avoid attracting the attention of the few workers in the back running the early morning surprise breakfast for the Waynes, "I've told you before, back when we were Batman and Robin, that there are missions I have to go on alone."

"What because it's too 'dangerous' for me?"

Dick sighed and took a long drink of his own coffee before opening his mouth to speak again-but was quickly cut off when his sensitive ears picked up the mumbling.

"I don't want to go back to the hospital."

There! There was that line again!

Assuming he had searched and found the right reason in his head, the elder kept his eyes on Damian as he spoke, "Look, I know it's hard seeing Bruce like this-but it's one thing every one of us 'Robins' had to face at one point or another."

Yeah, he remembered the first time he had seen an enemy leave Bruce broken and bleeding during his time as the Boy Wonder. It had been hard to grasp. He guessed it to be the reason that Damian wanted to avoid the hospital and his father. He probably didn't want to hear the worst of the worst.

Neither Jason nor Tim had handled it well at the time, though the young detective Robin had handled it somewhat better, perhaps due to facing it at an older age, and the hothead had just wanted to smash stuff and beat up some thugs. Still, they endured. Dick wasn't too embarrassed to admit that he had been near tears himself with his own experience.

By the time he had gotten word during Jason's time as the iconic Boy Wonder, the kid had already trashed half of the Batcave in anger and Tim had just continued to pretend to do case work for hours until he had broken down.

Either way, Dick did not need another little brother trying to avoid a problem before it turned out worst.

"I'm dropping you off at the hospital and you'll stay there until I come back to pick you up," Dick said with determined eyes.

"YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER!" Damian yelled while grinding his teeth.

The elder's eyes narrowed, "No, I'm not! Your father's currently comatose, possibly dying and you're doing everything in your power to avoid him!"

The younger closed his eyes while grinding his teeth before getting up and stalking off towards the restrooms.

Dick sighed as the child vanished from his sight and buried his face in one of his hands.

"Wonderful personality, isn't he?"

The acrobat glanced up and smiled tiredly as Tim appeared with his own cup of coffee and an icing covered pastry of some kind. The young detective took the seat Damian had just left, given the small table only had two chairs, and raised an eyebrow at his older brother.

"You were listening?"

"You two are kind of hard to ignore. The lamp and chairs are fixed."

Another sigh escaped the elder's lips, "I'm sorry for being grumpy Timmy."

Tim groaned, "Oh come on bro, I'm not a kid anymore."

Dick smiled and reached across the table to ruffle the other's hair. Tim allowed it only because he knew he didn't have much of chance of fighting the original Boy Wonder off. Sure he had better strategic skills than the acrobat, but Dick always had that one element where everything he did was so unorthodox that basic strategies just couldn't be applied. He had learned that through many spars and training runs across the city.

That one shortly after he had become Robin for the first though. It was basically city-wide hide-and-seek, but only Dick would think an obvious hiding place would be inside a cello case at the opera hall during their most boring show of the month.

And he wondered why Tim had had to resort to asking actual citizens of his whereabouts and why he had had to spend eight hours to find him since all the tracers in his suit and communicator at the time had been deactivated. To this day Tim realized that Bruce had been trying to prepare him for the unexpected, but he still couldn't come up with any logical reason why the exercise had been so important given he was positive that no villain in his right or wrong mind could be that good at what Dick deemed 'the Art of Slapstick.'

Noticing the way his brother was staring at his coffee like he was lost, Tim quickly ate a big bite of his pastry before offering, "If you could use some time, I could go see Dr. Langstrom this morning for you and then Selina afterwards while you drop Damian off and then go see what the Commissioner needs you for."

Dick's eyes shot up and near freaking 'sparkled' when he met Tim's own blue eyes, "That would-be a great help. Thank you, Red Robin."

Tim's eyes grew for a second, and then he smiled and bit into his pastry again to hide his smile as it began to grow. If there was one thing he had been trying to accomplish lately, it was making a name for himself. Most people still shouted "Robin!" when he appeared from the shadows whenever he had to visit a city for a case for the Titans.

"No problem bro," he finally said with a strawberry stained tongue.

A crash from inside the restroom doors nearby made Dick sigh again, but a suffering smile skirted across his face immediately afterwards and he finished off the last few bites of his bagel and the last drops of his coffee before getting up and walking off to cart his younger brother off to the hospital. If Alfred was up, maybe he could get some real answers.

* * *

><p>"Come on Damian, you can't avoid this forever," Dick said, pulling at the kid via his wrist into the back room of the hospital.<p>

"I've told you Grayson," Damian seethed, "I do not have any reason-"

"AHHH!"

The silence made the duo's eyes widen and they each recognized the source of the scream. Bruce and Alfred's room and the scream belonged to Dr. Leslie. They each ran for the door and Dick dove for the handle, pulling at the door for only 1/15th of second, only to find it locked. He nodded to Damian and they both backed up.

Back to back, the old Dynamic Duo sent an in-sync kick at the door, forcing it from his its' hinges and inside the room.

Dick gasped at the sight, "Azrael!"

The monstrously costumed Bat-figured looked up from his focus on the two forms on the floor and then fled out the window of the room. It didn't take the two long to recognize the figures on the floor, each holding a hand to a bloody wound.

"Leslie! Alfred!"

The acrobat was by their sides in an instant and the elderly faces glanced up in surprise and desperation.

"My father's gone!"

Dick glanced up for a moment and found that Damian was standing next to Bruce's overturned hospital bed which had bloody slashes through the white shredded sheets.

"Master Dick, the rooftop!" Alfred said, gesturing to the window.

The Dark Squire didn't need any super sight to see a scene of two groups of figures on a nearby rooftop, right where Azrael was heading!

"Robin, let's move!"

In moments, they were both outside of the window and shedding their civilian clothes for their hero attire while shooting off grappling lines.

* * *

><p>Damian would have admitted afterwards that landing a jaw breaking kick across his grandfather's face was strangely satisfying. Especially at the sight of the hoard of ninja behind the old man and the fact that both his mother and father were backed up against another connected building's higher wall.<p>

"Mother! Father!"

In one, single, breath instant, he was between the two people who had given him life.

"Damian?"

His father was awake!

He hid his smile by turning towards the one backing them into a wall. Nightwing had put himself between the two groups.

"Ra's," he said, as if he had been expecting the meeting for some time.

"Ah, Detective."

"Stop calling me that!" the acrobat raved, an eye twitching behind his mask and his hands physically itching to reach up to grab his ecrisma sticks for a fight.

Dick continued to rave in his mind if that one more person called Dick Grayson OR Nightwing a detective he was going to punch someone out. Besides, that title belonged to Bruce anyways and internally he was relieved that the man was now awake. He assumed that he'd get all the answers from Talia later. For now, glancing back at the relieved Damian, tired look on Bruce's face and then fact that most of Talia's outfit was cut in numerous places-he guessed that none of them would be up to fighting Ra's.

Then the thought hit him.

Where was Azrael?

He sensed the attacking figure from above just in time to dodge the strait down attack with a backflip. A bladed gauntlet stuck into the material of the rooftop as the bat-guised figure stood to his full height.

"Jean-Paul Valley?" Dick heard Bruce say behind him in surprise.

The bat figure reached up and removed the armored cowl he wore. The face he showed though was one of the last that any of them expected. His hair had turned a mixed assortment of grey and white-but the most surprising thing was that half of his face was gone, nothing but an empty skull, except for his eyes which were now red.

"You're late," Talia commented behind him with a scowl.

"Yeah, traffic was murder."

"What an adverse idea," Ra's commented.

Azrael attacked and the ninja hoard followed him in succession. The Dark Squire threw away a few attackers before shouting back to the others.

"Robin, get them to the nearest safe house!"

The Boy Wonder nodded and Nightwing turned his attention back to the fight at hand. Then he near balked as he dodged a very familiar looking sword blade.

"What do you want Ra's?" the hero asked as he tossed a few of the ninja into the wall behind him.

"I don't need to tell you that Detective, you already know."

"First of all, stop calling me Detective! Second of all, I have no idea what's going on in that whacked out brain of yours!"

While speaking, Dick was throwing the ninjas left and right with ease and he was wondering why these guys were acting like such amateurs. When a punch landed in his gut and he only just felt it, he realized what was going on at that exact moment. These ninjas weren't fighters. They weren't real ninjas at all!

A roundhouse kick with the wall's back spring support sent the whole group of ninjas sprawling before Ra's and Azrael's feet.

"I see you have discovered the ruse," Ra's commented before signaling towards the ninja with his left hand.

In response, Azrael took the sword Ra's hand and promptly ran through every fallen body, throwing Nightwing back into the wall in his rapid attempt to save them. Jean-Paul had gotten better.

But who were these 'ninjas' if they weren't actually ninjas?

"It is obvious that a late escaped potential employee has passed on the fact that I headed this-" Ra's was cut off.

"Deathstroke," Nightwing answered, as he forced his eyes away from the slaughtered men before him and back up at the man who had a crazy desire to live forever and the resurrected madman.

"Ah, alas the Terminator did not take up my offer and did not learn the truth. I assure you that I followed my daughter to see that her mission was a success, nothing more. I did not intend to do harm to Bruce Wayne."

Talia was the one here for something?

"It was my daughter that came here with these scientists," Ra's said, motioning to the bloodied dead figures between them once again.

"Scientists?" Dick raised an eyebrow under his mask.

"Don't tell me she resurrected him," the hero stated, pointing an ecrisma stick at the crudely dressed half skeleton form.

"Yes."

"What for?"

"To erase a mistake."

"What mistake?"

Azrael slid his cowl back over his face as more figures melted out of the shadows. Crap! Real ninjas! What was this? A bad episode of the Ninja Turtles?

With that, Ra's was handed a folder by one of the emerging ninja before he walked forward on his own and held out the folder to the Dark Squire. Keeping his senses on high and body tense, Dick hesitantly, put his ecrisma sticks away and stepped forward, thankful that Damian had to have Talia and Bruce far from their meet on the rooftops. He had kept his sight everywhere since they had left and hadn't seen anyone else sneak off, so he was a bit relieved that Bruce and Damian were safe.

He took the folder but didn't receive any threat as he opened it and stared down at a few photos. At the sight though, he almost threw the whole thing down as his eyes widened.

"You recognize him."

It wasn't a question. It didn't need to be.

Dick growled and glared up at Ra's, "What the hell is this for?"

"Then you-"

"Shut up! Why show me these?"

Glancing down again, although he hated to, frames of a familiar face stared back at him of an infant boy less than a year old.

"Wait a minute," Dick mumbled looking closer.

He had originally believed the pictures to be of Damian as an infant-but now that he looked again-he recognized one thing that set this child apart from the assassin child that he knew.

"These fools began that experiment and assured my daughter that it would provide her with a child."

"Wait a minute, but Damian…" Nightwing trailed off, letting his thoughts connect facts.

The attack on Gotham city from the Scarecrow, kept the city in chaos.

Taking out the 'Bats'- warded off any hero interference.

Distracting the heroes that Azrael had failed to capture kept those in Gotham vulnerable.

Wait, when he had left for Bludhaven in response to Batwoman's communicator call and then he had told Damian to remain in Gotham. If the boy had stayed and went up against the Penguin and possibly others who had been watching in the distance…

Dick growled under his breath before looking at the photos again. It did look like Damian, but there was one giant difference, instead of the dark tanned skin he was accustomed to seeing on the boy, this infant's skin was pale. Like Bruce's instead of Talia's.

"So, who was this?"

"Damian al Ghul."

"Stop messing with my head Ra's!"

Nightwing threw the folder to the rooftop beneath his feet and glared at the so-called immortal man, his hands itching to draw his ecrisma sticks again. He felt the tension in everybody around him grow. There was going to be a fight and he was going to love smashing a few people's heads in!

"I assure you that I am only stating facts. It was only two weeks ago that my daughter discovered that our scientists had hidden a secret failed experiment. One that died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome."

"SIDS? But why would Talia be here-"

Wait! That meant that their Damian wasn't actually the original child and-

"These fools covered it up by synthesizing the child you know now quickly. There had to be repairs in the DNA strand with samples we have collected in the past but all in all the child you know is not truly my blood grandson and my daughter simply seeks to right that wrong."

Dick's eyes grew wide in realization and he turned to the direction in which Damian had run with Talia and Bruce only to come face to face with the skilled ninjas.

Crap.

"So you must understand why I can not allow you to interfere. If you had simply died in that crash, I would not have to order you to be killed. We were simply going to distract the city and finish this quietly but you have interfered for the last time."

All that was their idea of a diversion!

"Please understand, I simply hate uneven ends in my plans."

With another gesture: Nightwing was weighed down with exactly 57 assassin-trained ninjas!

He knew all too well what a scientist did with a faulty experiment.

* * *

><p>Damian was staring out at the morning air, watching the bright sun rise in the distance behind skyscrapers.<p>

"Rest beloved."

His mother had given his father a sedative for him to rest.

But what he didn't see was his mother staring down at a picture of a pale infant dead of SIDS and a long blade being slipped out of her right boot.

The Boy Wonder reached for his communicator in his belt. There was no way Nightwing could handle his grandfather, Azrael and the soldiers his grandfather had with him. He would need help. Ra's rarely met an adversary alone without an army to back him up.

Maybe he should've taken that specific page of advice from his Grandfather as a blade swiped through the air, aimed at the hidden scar on his back.

* * *

><p>I really need to finish this story soon. *face hits table*<p>

~Moonsetta


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, alerts/follows, favorites and reviews. Trust me though; I'm glad that this is ending.

* * *

><p>Nightwing's eyes narrowed back at Azrael and Ra's. He was too far away to help Damian…<p>

He took one moment of peace though. Damian wasn't with Talia alone. Bruce wouldn't let anything happen to him…

* * *

><p>Red Robin hit the rooftops after his meeting with Catwoman and huffed at the impact of his boots on the rooftop. Nothing. Absolutely nothing found at last night's scope of the city. Now what?<p>

Maybe he should head to the hospital?

No. The child assassin was there. No matter how desperately he wanted to check in to see Bruce's and Alfred's conditions, being alone with Damian again didn't set too well in his stomach at all. Taking a deep breath of fresh air, he padded to the end of the rooftop he was on and settled himself down on the edge.

Dr. Langstrom's study on the alien chemical in affect with 'meta-genes' for lack of a better scientific term, hadn't revealed much either. Maybe he should…

He hadn't been told if the Batcave was up to par for study but he knew the Batbunker was. Yeah, he could go there. Study it himself. He might have simply stayed with Dr. Langstrom but come on; the guy was Man-Bat! There weren't too many happy memories in his mind connected with the guy. Though he was accepted, they all were a little weary of him.

Well it was either start his own studies on the samples himself, or go find Nightwing, who was most likely still in a meeting with the Commissioner. and see if he needed any help. Of course, he could go back to the hotel and get that nap he had been craving earlier, he was starting to get a stress headache behind his right eye and he'd been under mind control for most of this adventure. Earlier Stephanie had told, more like ranted to, him how many times she had been knocked out. When some gang guy had tried to knock her out again last night while she was out on the city-scope with the 'cats' she'd single-handedly thrown him and the entire gang off the nearest bridge since they had been near the river instead of the rooftops. He was avoiding her at the moment, plus she was back with her mother at their apartment that had escaped the city panic with only minimal damage.

Tim suddenly had to reach up and rub at his eyes. That hotel bed…

OK. It was too tempting, he wanted a nap.

With that, he turned away from the sunlit city scape line and headed back to the extra fluffy bed that was calling his name.

* * *

><p>Frustrated, Dr. Langstrom shoved the photo diagram of meta-DNA away and reached for his coffee cup. He wasn't getting anywhere with his studies at the moment. Draining the last two drops of coffee, he should've made more than one cup, he walked over to the low end window of the East Wayne-Research lab and looked up at the sky.<p>

Ugh! He could feel the wings already, even without the bat-gland formula in his veins.

Well, he had no more coffee, his studies hadn't turned up anything, he was dying to fly, the formula was burning a hole in his back pocket and most of the 'team' had been patrolling the night before so those running around right now could be outnumbered-not that there could possibly be much more people or villains out there that weren't busy getting back on their feet.

He shouldn't be arguing with his brain. He was going on his own patrol!

He left the cup on the windowsill, opened the door to the rooftop on the far side of the lab and followed the fresh air all the way up to the sky.

* * *

><p>Damian's eyes were wide, his mouth dripping blood as he stared down at his own chest. He couldn't take his eyes off of the blade. Yes, <em>BLADE<em> that was sticking in between two of his ribs. He couldn't even look up at his mother, as she towered above him. Her hand was stained with his blood and she was grimacing at it as if it were some kind of vile alien-slug.

Damn. Grayson was still influencing him. Whatever the idiot had was apparently contagious!

"You will understand boy-this is necessary."

"Mother, why?" Damian choked out as a heat raced up his esophagus that felt like starch cotton.

"You are not Damian-you are not my son."

Raising a second blade just below her shoulder for a downward strike, Talia let herself be lost in her memory…

* * *

><p>"<em>The fools," Talia muttered as her sharp eyes glanced around the decimated biology lab. <em>

_White broken tiles, knocked over test tube racks, cracked grey computer screens and hole-filled walls stared back her with the same sharp of eyes of just a different nature. She had returned to the underground research biology lab in India to recover a hard file that had been abandoned quite quickly when that team of meta-humans had discovered it months ago. _

_The file had been the responsibility of the head scientist of the group that was responsible for her son. Unfortunately, the useless brain had allowed himself to be captured by those "Outsiders" and left the file behind. Talia had to wonder though-what were the chances those heroes hadn't taken it for themselves? _

_Even if they possessed it, she had to hope it was still in the hidden safe. Giving the room a strait, curious glare, the al Ghul made her way over to the center of the room where a small stasis cylinder stood. It was only big enough for perhaps, a three year old boy. Ah, the place where their head scientists had ensured her that her son would be her perfect soldier. Her mouth fell a bit at that but she shook off the betrayal from her neck and spine. She bent down at the cylinders base and ran her fingertips over the sleek aluminum shell before pressing it in at three different points. The hidden door slid open and what she found inside was not the hard copy manila folder of project 'Gatea' but a large dusty memory drive that resembled a computer chip._

_She would kill her employee for lying to her. Beheading. _

_Curious though, she picked it up with her fingertips and blew off the dust. Did the old thing even work?_

_Locating a still humming computer she crossed the room towards it to check the files on it, if there were any at all._

_Perhaps it was the file for their project in digital form?_

_When the static of a video file was the first sight to greet her though, she knew that she had been wrong._

_When the picture adjusted the color and clarity she beat down the way her heart wanted to thump painfully in regret. She recognized the child in the cylinder chamber by the identification code on its side._

"_Damian," she mentally sighed._

_Some of the scientists that had been working on project 'Gatea' had also aided in her son's early infant development. OK, perhaps she should just kill that one in his sleep…_

_She was kind of listening to the scientists' voices grumbling back and forth to one another on the video. Talia reached up to the nearest power switch to turn the screen off but something her sharp eyes spotted made her stop and stare. Her hands flew to the computer controls and froze the screen. On the side of the lab on the screen, one of the computers had a heart monitor display. Zooming in-her eyes widened and her jaw dropped._

_The heart rate had flat-lined._

_But then that would mean..._

_The video went back to playing and Talia held her breath as one of the white coated scientists approached the stasis cylinder and slid open the door, watching the infant body fall onto the floor._

"_Lady Talia will not be happy."_

"_We'll be killed."_

"_This is your fault! Too much of the Amatatinine-195 caused the heart to dry out!"_

"_Silence! We'll all be killed, unless…"_

"_Unless?"_

"_Do we have other DNA samples on hand?"_

"_Well, yes-but I don't see-"_

"_We'll have to double the synthesizing rate to complete the project on time. Whatever whole DNA samples we have will have to be used to repair what we can recover from this failed experiment."_

_He kicked at the cold body on the floor, "Dump this far from here and get to work, or it'll be our heads. Talia al Ghul will have A son."_

_Talia stepped back in pure, completely disturbed, shock._

* * *

><p>This was not her son, so Talia had nothing to fear or regret. She drew out a second blade from her left sleeve, reached out and grabbed the boy by his hair. She yanked his head back and frowned as it let his throat be exposed to her. He was gasping, so the first knife had probably struck a lung.<p>

She hesitated and mentally stabbed herself for it. This was NOT her child. Those fools! The boy was a mess of DNA strands that had been forced to synthesize.

She straitened her hand holding the knife and stared up at the clouds. She had seen the bandage around his neck. Opening the wound would allow the entire DNA bloodstream to spill-but no, a quick, clean cut. The child deserved that. Then it would be over.

"Understand I cannot apologize for this."

The blade flashed in the afternoon sun that couldn't reach them.

"Talia! NO!"

* * *

><p>Did these things ever end!<p>

Dick found himself facing twice as many ninja before including Ra's and Azrael himself. He tried to keep his body up to par and to ignore the pain from his few wounds by muttering a random rhyme.

One Ninja! Two Ninja! Red Ninja! Blue Ninja!

Thank you doctor!

"You will fall," muttered Azrael.

"Says the skinless stale skeleton. Whoa, try saying the five times fast," Nightwing muttered while flipping the dead guy over his shoulder and face-first onto the rooftop beneath their feet.

It took him a good few minutes to take down the ninja but then he was faced against Azrael.

"Eliminate him," Ra's commanded and the bat armor-clad zombie dove forward to drive his claws through the skull of his prey.

"I really hope this guy doesn't eat brains," the blue and black clad hero thought as he rolled to the side to avoid the attack.

Dodging a bladed gauntlet, Nightwing leaped up and used the shoulders of the once live Azrael as a springboard to reach the higher rooftop he had been backed against for most of the fight. The armored bat wasn't far behind, meeting the hero gauntlet to ecrisma stick. This was definitely one of those days. Gotham had to be where all the villains' plans were buried under layers of false plans. It couldn't be as simple for them as Superman. With Metropolis, a huge alien monster normally just attacked the city and Superman would normally throw it back out into space.

What was it about Gotham that attracted the ones with brains?

Well, maybe that's why the zombie was here; but if even a small part of the old Jean-Paul Valley existed, Dick hated to admit it even mentally; he had to at least try to reach that part.

"Jean-Paul! What happened to you? Do you remember-anything?"

He got a snarl and nearly got his left lung ripped out for that one. Maybe if he bonked him on the head a few times? That always worked on television and hey-truth was stranger than fiction, right?

Catching sense of an opening and swiping a sharp kick across the armored head, Dick grinned as he heard the helmet hit the ground. Then, he glanced up and saw something he didn't expect to. Apparently the guy had been in some zombie form, because that weak kick hadn't just taken the helmet off, the head had gone with it.

"Bravo Detective."

THAT WAS IT! RA'S WAS GETTING AN ECRISMA STICK SHOVED DOWN HIS THROAT IF IT WAS THE LAST THING HE DID!

Nightwing turned towards the man obsessed with immortality and tightened his hold on his weapons.

"Please, if your mentor could not defeat me what chance do-" Ra's was cut off as he jumped backwards to avoid a stream of firing bullets.

Dick gasped and glanced behind him.

"Jason."

"You scum-get out of my city before I fill you full of lead," the Red Hood said.

"You!" Ra's gasped, "I thought we had rid ourselves of-"

"Shut up!" Jason yelled, firing another line of bullets.

A loud breeze shut the three up. The villain, the hero and the anti-hero.

"Well, you up for some double play Dickie-bird?"

Nightwing glared before racing towards Ra's, "Shut up and fight!"

Jason chuckled under his breath and withdrew a second gun. This would be fun!

* * *

><p>In the end, Ra's had vanished into the shadows of a back-water alley, also spitting out the obvious fact that criminals would retake the city with ease. It seems that if the city's normal criminals helped Ra's with his mission, their reputation would advance in the underworld. Of course.<p>

"So, what are you doing here?" Nightwing asked, raising an eyebrow behind his mask at his younger brother.

"I ran into an old friend of yours."

Up went the other eyebrow, "Old friend?"

"The possessive old maniac."

Dick's face fell into an annoyed expression, "Deathstroke."

"Yeah he's still all, 'Nightwing will be mine!' I'm fine with the women bro, but you've GOT to stop attracting these old men-it's freaking creepy!"

The acrobat slapped his forehead with a sigh before ignoring the problem, "I need to get back to Damian, Bruce and Talia."

When he turned to face him again though, Jason was gone.

"Modest guy doesn't even wait for a thank you," Nightwing muttered before heading off in the direction where his youngest brother had left with his parents.

He stopped for only a moment, the folder Ra's had given him was still lying on the rooftop with the bloody bodies of Azrael, the scientists that were slaughtered and all the unconscious ninja. He kicked it off the rooftop and ignored it. So what? None of it meant anything to their family, especially to him. DNA or not. It didn't matter.

With that final thought and a sharp self-assuring nod, Dick left the rooftop for Gotham's finest to look over later.

Nightwing found an unconscious Bruce Wayne and a bit of blood at the scene, but that was it. He was by his unconscious mentor's side in a second. He scanned the body for wounds, breathed a sigh of relief but then gasped at the sight of a needle in the man's neck.

Sleeping drug. Non-lethal. Whew!

Dick turned and let his lenses scan the rooftop. It didn't take long to find a suspicious trail of blood or the cold, unmoving, dead body of a little boy-killed before his time. Throat slit, open to Gotham's polluted air.

Ecrisma sticks shattered against the rooftop as a distant Midwestern death bell tolled out the time for noonday.

* * *

><p>I've decided there will be an epilogue. I wanted this to be the complete end but I think this is really where I need to break it off.<p>

~Moonsetta


End file.
